


Relationship Status: It's Complicated

by koganphrancis



Category: Shameless (US)
Genre: Angst, Canon divergent after the end of Season 5, Companion art by damnmilkovich, Faileb is mentioned but is long gone, Fluff, Gay Jesus and Trevor never happened in this 'verse, I can't believe some of the stuff I made up then actually parallels real life, I've had this idea in my head since January 2017, M/M, Pining, Shameless Big Bang, Slow Burn, This is a bit of a dystopian AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-21
Updated: 2019-02-21
Packaged: 2019-11-01 21:44:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 26,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17875397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/koganphrancis/pseuds/koganphrancis
Summary: A story idea that came to me during the administration change in our nation's government back in January of 2017.  What if the new president owed a debt to TPTB in Russia?  How would he begin to repay the favor of their help in getting elected?  Who would that affect in the Shameless world?  The answer I came up with was Svetlana, Mickey, and even young Yevgeny.  And of course, anything that effects Mickey touches Gallavich, so here we are.  Enjoy my alternate storyline for these characters, and please believe me when I tell you I came up with the idea of children being separated from their parents before it was actually happening, but even in my wildest nightmares I didn't picture them being put in cages.  What a strange world we're living in compared to just a few short years ago.





	1. Chapter 1

In the waning days of President Ohana’s administration, he exercised his right to grant presidential clemency for nearly two thousand people convicted of federal crimes. And while it was true his power didn’t extend to pardon people convicted of state crimes, that didn’t stop one of his more industrious legal interns from taking a close look at prisoners serving time in the President’s hometown: Chicago.

She found a case so ludicrous, so badly botched, that she felt certain the President would want to know about it. She was right-as he read over the details of a man serving time for attempted murder in the second degree he shook his head more and more. He placed a couple of phone calls and the innocent man was cleared of all charges, his record expunged, and he was released from the prison he had been languishing in for over a year with sincere apologies all around and fifty-eight thousand dollars-a thousand dollars for each of the weeks he had spent incarcerated since his wrongful conviction.

When Mickey got home, he found that only Iggy was still living at the house. Terry was still locked up till at least the 2030’s and Colin had been nabbed for grand theft auto and was also locked up for the foreseeable future. Mickey had stashed most of his money into a savings account, bought a couple of certificates of deposit, opened a checking account and kept about two grand in cash to stash in the house to have on hand in case of emergencies. He had taken a course in prison about how to live legally on the outside to give him points in the whole “good behavior” early release game, but he actually paid attention in the class and picked up some helpful pointers.

He hired one of those haul away junk companies to come out to the house and got rid of a ton of the shit that had accumulated over the years. He also bought a gun cabinet with a better than decent lock and stowed away all the guns and knives that Iggy couldn’t sell off in there. Living in South Side Mickey felt it was still probably necessary to have a gun or two for protection, but being in big boy prison had definitely made him realize he never wanted to go back again, it literally felt like hell on earth. He got a gun permit and registered the two guns he bought legally.

Once he had the house squared away, he got in touch with Mandy, letting her know what was up and telling her she was more than welcome to move back home, should she ever want to. She surprised the shit out of him by showing up that weekend, a few suitcases in tow. She moved back into her old room after assuring Mickey she was single and that no deadbeat boyfriends would be moving in as well.

Mandy lasted about three days before bringing up a subject Mickey was studiously trying to avoid. They were at the kitchen table waking up over morning coffee. She’d keep looking at her brother and biting her lip, as if she were physically stopping words from coming out of her mouth. Mickey finally, predictably, snapped.

“What the fuck are you lookin’ at?”

She took a deep breath and let it out on a long sigh. “Have you seen him?”

“Seen who?”

“Don’t make me say it, asshole. You know who.”

Mickey did not want to have this conversation, but he knew Mandy would keep bringing it up till he made her understand.

“Saw him a couple times when I was in prison, but Svetlana had to _pay_ him the last time,” he muttered. “Haven’t seen that fuckhead since.” He said that with more venom and volume, and shot his sister a defiant “let’s drop this shit” look. She shifted her gaze from his. They both sat in silence for a few moments, only the dripping faucet in the kitchen sink and a far-off siren providing any background noise. “Have you seen him?” Mickey finally asked, his voice barely a whisper, his eyes on his coffee mug.

“Once,” Mandy said, “while you were still away. I, uh, I was working as an escort,” Mickey’s eyes snapped up and met hers at that piece of news, but she kept talking, knowing that was a story for another time, “and I ran into a bit of trouble. I didn’t want anyone in the family to know what I was doing, so I called Ian.”

“What kind of trouble?” Mickey said, connecting dots in his head that it had to be pretty huge and awful if she resorted to call a Gallagher on top of thinking she couldn’t call one of her brothers.

“Dead John kind of trouble,” she said.

“Jesus, Mandy,” Mickey said, shaking his head.

“Hey, it worked, okay? Convinced me to leave that life behind no matter how good the money was.” Mandy was still very defensive about that period of her life.

“So what happened?”

“He was actually very helpful-I wanted to try to cover the whole thing up but he convinced me that getting rid of a body from a hotel wasn’t going to work. We wound up talking to the cops and the death was ruled an accidental overdose-which is what it was. I said I was on a date with the guy and they had no evidence to prove otherwise, so I was in the clear. I was pretty shook up though, so Ian brought me to his house that night and washed my clothes for me, let me grab a shower and get some sleep.”

Mickey suddenly pictured the Gallagher house upstairs in his head but quickly shook the thoughts away. He didn’t need or want to picture Ian there.

“We talked…a little,” Mandy went on. “He said he missed you.”

Mickey snorted at that. “Fucker knew just where I was if he wanted to see me.” Mandy could hear the bitterness in his voice.

“He, uh, he was studying, he had books in his room. Was working on becoming an EMT.”

That surprised Mickey. “He was on his meds? Doing good?” He heard the hopefulness in his voice and hated himself for it. If Ian was doing so great, why wasn’t he coming to see me, he reminded himself.

“Uh, yeah, I guess so. He told me…he told me he was seeing someone.”

Ah, there it is, Mickey thought to himself. Of course he was. “Some old sugar daddy with money for schoolbooks and a pocketful of Viagra, probably,” Mickey couldn’t stop himself from saying.

“Not exactly,” Mandy said slowly. “Ian said he was a hot black fireman. But it wasn’t anything serious!” she added quickly. “Ian said he knew it wasn’t going anywhere, that he was having fun while it lasted.”

“Well, good for him,” Mickey said, and even his sister couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or sincere. The conversation ended there, and the topic was not brought up again.

Mickey had also texted Svetlana, letting her know he was out and that he had made the house kid-safe and that he wanted to see his son. He didn’t know what to expect from her, but his time away had taught him to stand up for his rights and to try to take care of what was important to him. His son growing up to have a different life than he had was definitely important to him now. She texted back a time he could come see her at The Alibi. When he got there he learned that she and Yevgeny were living above the bar, her weird threesome relationship with the Balls had come to an end, but somehow she was half-owner of the bar now. She was all for Mickey having shared custody of Yev-now that she couldn’t count on Vee and Kevin to watch him some of the time, Mickey would be a big help.

Everything was going along fine for a few months, but one day in early spring, Svetlana disappeared.

Mickey had picked up a trade while he was in prison, learning basic electrical fundamentals. On the outside he got a job at a plant that made components for Bose radios. The job was boring but legit, and it provided him and Yev with health insurance now that he had been working there for over three months. No one knew about his nest egg, and Mickey hoped to keep it that way. Mickey had already been promoted, he was a quick study and his supervisor could see he could handle more than the entry level job he had been hired for.

The job was Monday through Friday, 8:15 to 4:30, and that worked perfectly with Svetlana’s night shifts and weekends at the bar. But one Tuesday morning she failed to pick Yevgeny up at her usual time. Mickey tried texting her a couple times, but they were showing unread, and then he tried calling her, but the phone went straight to voice mail.

“She probably let the battery die,” Mandy said. “You go on to work and I’ll watch Yev till she gets here.” Mandy was working as a temp while she took online college courses and was between gigs for a few days.

Mickey personally thought Svetlana would never let her phone die when he had Yevgeny with him, she constantly texted and called to check up on them still, but he supposed anything was possible, especially since Svetlana had been hinting around that she’d started seeing someone. Since Mickey couldn’t give a shit, he hadn’t asked her about the guy, intrinsically trusting her to keep anyone she was seeing away from Yev till she was one hundred percent sure they weren’t some kind of creep.

But when he got home from work Yevgeny was still there and there were still no messages from Svetlana.

“I brought him to school this afternoon and asked at the office if they had heard from Svetlana, but no one had,” Mandy whispered to Mickey while Yevgeny busied himself with a coloring book on the living room floor. Yev was enrolled in a half day pre-K program run out of a neighborhood church basement.

Mickey was genuinely starting to worry. “Can you keep an eye on him a while longer? I’ll go to The Alibi and see if anyone there knows anything.” Mandy nodded.

Mickey had not set foot in The Alibi-or any of the old neighborhood spots-since his return. He barely felt comfortable when he had to go to Yevgeny’s pre-K but he knew the odds of running into anyone he knew there were slim.

“Mickey Milkovich, as I live and breathe!” Kev yelled out when he saw Mickey hesitating in the doorway of the bar. All the patrons, whether they knew Mickey or not, turned to stare. Mickey’s blue eyes shot daggers at Kevin. “When did you get out, you fucking convict?”

“Do you mind shutting the fuck up?” Mickey growled, as soon as he was close enough to the bar for Kev to hear him without yelling himself. “Have you seen Svetlana since last night? She didn’t pick up the kid.”

“Do not mention that skank’s name in my presence,” Vee said, carrying a tray of clean barware over to Kev from out back.

“This is a sort of a situation,” Mickey insisted. “She’d never not come for the kid without sending some sort of message.”

“Haven’t seen the bitch since we traded off last night here at the bar,” Vee said, not in the least bit concerned.

Mickey slammed his hand down on the bar a few times. “Hey!” he shouted so the whole bar could hear him, “Anyone seen Svetlana?” Mickey looked all around, but only saw blank faces staring back.

“Svetlana that works here?” Tommy said, from the other end of the bar. Mickey turned back to face the bar and leaned down so he could see Tommy’s face.

“Of course Svetlana that works here, that’s why I’m asking…Hey!” Someone had pinched his ass while he was talking to Tommy. Mickey whipped around quickly, but no one was behind him. Mickey scanned the whole bar again, but couldn’t spot anyone suspicious.

“Listen up, morons,” Mickey said to the bar at large, “I’m gonna leave my number with Kev here. If anyone sees Svetlana or hears anything about her, tell him and he’ll call me.” Everyone shrugged and got back to their drinking. Kev pushed an order pad across the bar to Mickey and he wrote his number down. “Call me right away, okay? It’s important.”

Kev nodded and Mickey turned to leave. “Hey, Mickey? You’re about to lose something out of your back pocket,” Kev told him.

Mickey twisted around to try to see-he didn’t keep anything in his back pockets, too easy for someone to lift. He put his hands on both his pockets, and in the one on the same side he had just been pinched, there was a piece of paper sticking out. He pulled it out and saw it was a bar napkin. There was a message written in blue ink:

“Be at the G’s house 9 PM tonight bring your sister”

 

 

 

 

 

 


	2. Chapter 2

Mandy was getting on Mickey’s last nerve. She had been asking questions nonstop since he got home from The Alibi, even though he told her he had zero answers for her. He was carrying a sleeping Yevgeny in his arms and he raised his eyebrows to his sister to indicate she needed to knock on the Gallaghers’ front door. She rolled her eyes and rapped her knuckles against the wood.

Debbie opened the door, her face lighting up when she saw Mandy.

“Mandy! Holy shit! What are you doing here? Who’s that with you…MICKEY? HOLY SHIT! Why are you guys here?”

“Hi, Debs, um, mind if we come in?” Mandy asked, suddenly appreciating how Mickey must feel, not having any answers herself for Debbie.

“Yeah, of course, of course. Fiona! You’ll never guess who’s here!” Debbie shouted towards the kitchen.

“You’ll never guess who’s in here,” Fiona replied, in a weird, strangled tone.

Mickey followed his sister and Debbie into the house, and gently set Yevgeny down on the couch. He glanced around-the house looked so much smaller than he remembered. His own house had felt so much bigger to him after the time he spent in prison, but maybe that was because he cleared out the shit that had been cluttering it up his whole life, he thought. The Gallagher house was almost claustrophobic to him, a bunch of memories were closing in too fast.

“Fiona, come out here,” Debbie insisted.

“Uh, you and whoever is with you better come in here instead,” Fiona called.

Debbie, Mandy, and Mickey (after taking one last look at Yev) walked to the kitchen.

“Holy shit! Jimmy? Steve? Jack? What the hell is your real name again?” Debbie said, staring wide-eyed at the man standing by the back door.

“It’s Benjamin now-Benjamin Franklin,” Jimmy/Jack/Steve/whatever replied. “Please call me Ben. Oh, Mickey-good, you got my note!” he added, seeing Mickey behind Debbie and Mandy.

“You’re the one that pinched my ass?” Mickey said, his eyebrows rising alarmingly high.

“Had to be sure to draw your attention to the note. Glad you brought your sister. I’ve got news about your wife…”

Just then Ian came down the back stairs, his hair a wild mess and he was rubbing his eyes. “Wha’s going on down here? I’m trying to slee….” his words trailed off when he saw Mickey standing in his kitchen. Mickey was trying to look anywhere else, but Ian sort of naturally drew attention in his boxers and a thin tank top.

“Ian! Long time no see,” “Ben” said with a big, friendly smile. “Grab a seat, this is something you all need to be in on.”

Ian looked at his sister’s ex-boyfriend in complete confusion. “Uh, just let me go throw some clothes on,” he said, darting another look at Mickey, who quickly looked away from studying him as he had been doing the entire time Ian’s attention was focused on Jimmy or Ben or whatever that clown was calling himself now. Mickey told himself he didn’t notice the tent in Ian’s boxers when he turned sideways.

“What’s this about my wife?” Mickey barked, once Ian had disappeared back up the staircase.

“It’ll be better if I only tell it once,” Ben said. “Fiona, you got anything to drink? I’m parched.”

Fiona rolled her eyes but said, “I’ve got beer and boxed wine. Name your poison.”

“Beer please,” Ben said. “Beers all around?” he added.

“I’ve got my kid with me,” Mickey said darkly.

“I’ll put on some coffee,” Fiona said, and walked to the counter to get to the coffee maker. When she passed Mickey, who was standing at the end of it, she murmured, “Ian’s working six AM shifts this week, so he has to wake up at four-thirty. He’s doin’ good, takin’ his meds and takin’ care of himself.”

Mickey quietly and evenly replied, “Didn’t ask, did I?” Fiona shrugged and went about making the coffee.

Debbie opened the fridge and handed out beers to Mandy and Ben. “Fiona, you want one?”

“Naw, think I’ll have coffee,” she replied, opening a cabinet to take out some mugs. “Everybody sit, I can hear you just fine from over here.”

Debbie, Ben, Mandy, and Mickey took seats around the kitchen table. Ian reemerged from upstairs and sat next to Mickey. He had combed his hair down and was wearing jeans and an open flannel over his tank top he’d been sleeping in. Mickey caught a whiff of cologne coming off Ian and wrinkled his nose. Ian didn’t need some fancy smelling expensive shit, Mickey didn’t like it.

The back door opened and Kev and Vee came in. “Knock knock!” Vee yelled. “Sorry we’re late-Svetlana and her Russian skank cocktail waitresses didn’t show and we had to stay at the bar till Jose and Kelly could get there to cover tonight.”

“Late? I didn’t even know you were comin’,” Fiona said over the heads of those seated at the table. “What are you doin’ here?”

“Got your note-or ‘a’ note, anyway,” Kev said. “It said to be at Fiona’s at nine, so here we are.”

“I invited them,” Ben said.

“I was beginning to figure that out,” Fi said sarcastically. “We got wine, beer, and coffee comin’.”

“Beer for me,” said Kev right as Vee was saying, “I’ll have wine.”

“I’ll get it,” Mickey said, popping up. “Veronica, take my seat and then you’ll be next to Kev.”

Kev settled himself at the head of the table while Vee took Mickey’s seat as he walked behind the counter. He caught Ian watching him, but again ignored him, telling himself Ian’s cologne was giving him a headache and that was the only reason he wanted to move his seat. Ian was a non-fucking-factor in his life, as far as Mickey was concerned.

The coffee was ready, so Fi poured two mugs and then took out orange juice from the fridge and poured a glass. Carrying the mugs in one hand by their handles and the juice in the other, she walked to the table and stood behind Ian while she put the juice down in front of him, giving him a quick kiss on the back of his head. Then she scooted around the end of the table where Jimmy/Steve/Ben was and stared at Debbie till she moved out of the chair next to him and perched on the same chair as Mandy. Fiona placed the coffee mugs down and shoved one towards the head of the table so Mickey could reach it.

“There’s milk in the fridge if you want it for your coffee, and sugar on the table-why don’t you grab that folding chair between the washing machine and the wall and bring it over,” she told Mickey. Mickey found the chair and brought it over, placing it between Kev and Mandy and Debbie’s chair-and about as far away from Ian as he could be, although now that he was across the table from him, they could both see each other better. Mickey thought Ian looked tired and a bit pissy. Debbie reached for the sugar bowl but Mickey waved her off.

“Drink it black now,” he said. Everyone stared at him in disbelief; Mickey’s sweet tooth was the stuff of legend. “Sugar packs were currency in the joint, used it to trade for more important shit,” he shrugged, uncomfortable under the scrutiny of so many pairs of eyes.

“You did time?” Ben said, surprised. “How did I not know that?”

“How would you know that?” Mickey asked, irritated. “You get a newsletter from the neighborhood or something?”

“He’s got a point, Jimmy-or Ben,” Fiona said. “We didn’t even know where you were all these years, why should you know where Mickey’s been?”

“I, uh, I actually have been keeping tabs on this corner of the world,” Ben said. “Let me tell you why I’m here, and maybe some stuff will become clearer.”

“About fuckin’ time,” Mickey said. “You know where Svetlana is?”

“Not the exact location, no,” Ben said, “but I’m pretty sure I know what happened.” He took a sip of his beer. If Mickey had been sitting next to him he probably would’ve punched him. “I think she’s been abducted.”

“By who?” Mickey’s voice was the loudest out of all the exclamations of surprise around the table. Mickey looked into the living room, but luckily Yev hadn’t been woken up by the noise.

“It’s complicated, but to put it in the simplest terms,” Ben continued, once everyone had gotten quiet again, “our illustrious president seems to owe quite a debt of gratitude to President Rasputin of Russia and he’s begun to repay it by sending back Russians that are in this country illegally-starting with the young, pretty, female ones.”

“Are you telling me Svetlana got sent back to Russia?” Mickey said. This time everyone else around the table was quiet, trying to wrap their heads around what Ben was telling them.

“Not yet-they’re literally rounding up women and keeping them…somewhere, till they get enough together to ship them over.”

“But you don’t know where they’re being held?” Fiona asked.

“Sadly, no-but we’re working on leads,” Ben said.

“Who the hell is ‘we’ and what kind of leads?” Mickey said.

“I work for an…let’s call it an organization,” Ben said. “We’re kind of like a secret branch of a certain government agency…”

“You working for the CIA?” Mickey said with a snort. “Yeah, like I’m gonna believe that.”

“I can’t confirm or deny anything, and remember, I didn’t bring up the CIA, you did. But I can tell you I’ve been working for a clandestine organization for the past several years, and our mission is to make the world a more stable place.” Ben turned to Fiona and continued, “That’s why I haven’t been able to call you, or come back here to see you, I’ve been…”

“Flirt on your own time,” Mickey growled. “What can be done to get Svetlana back?”

“Well, first we’ve got to find her, then we’ll see from there. This just started happening and my organization doesn’t have a protocol in place yet…but we’re working on it!” he added hastily, seeing that Mickey was about to blow up again. “That issue is actually only half of why I came-there’s something else that you and your sister need to guard yourselves against.”

“Me?” Mandy said.

“And Mickey,” Ben nodded. “The next piece of repaying Rasputin back for virtually buying President Dump the election is to help him in his quest to subjugate the Ukraine back under Russian rule. So, besides giving him tanks and guns to shoot across the border, he’s also going to round up US Ukrainian citizens and hand them over, probably to be put to death.”

“Seriously?” Kev said.

“If they’re dead, they can’t fight for their homeland,” Ben said.

“But, but, but we’re Americans,” Mandy said. “We wouldn’t fight for the Ukraine.”

“Dump and Vlad don’t see it that way, Mandy,” Ben said gently. “The first group to be sent back will be Ukrainians that were born there but live here, and then the next will be first generation American like you guys, although we’ve had intel that they’re going to pick off the youngest and best fit people first, so you might get bumped up in line ahead of people that came here to escape World War II or the cold war and stuff. They want to take out the strongest and fittest first, clean up guys like your father later on.”

“What about Iggy and Colin and our other brothers?” Mickey asked. “They’re Terry’s kids too.”

“But their mother wasn’t a Ukrainian immigrant like your mom,” Ben said.

“How do you know that?” Mickey said.

“I’m telling you, we have resources and databases. Anyway, while it’s true Terry was born in the Ukraine, his first wife was from a family that had been here since Ellis Island opened-in their weird way of assigning who is worthy to stay here and who should go, that pushes them pretty much off the list. They’re considered bona fide Americans. Which brings me to what you two can do to protect yourselves, and why I wanted you to come to the Gallaghers’ house. You Milkoviches need to marry Gallaghers.” Ben sat back in his chair and took another slug from his beer bottle.

Everyone was truly stunned this time.

“Wait-why are we here then?” Kev said, and Vee smacked him in the chest. “Ow!”

“I thought you’d want to hear what’s going on with Svetlana, since she’s your business partner,” Ben answered.

“Like we give a shit,” Vee said, and then everyone started talking at once-well, almost everyone. Ian and Mickey were each silent, thinking their own thoughts.

“Wait a minute-how do we qualify as being anchors, or whatever?” Fiona asked. “Aren’t we pretty much Irish immigrants ourselves? I’m pretty sure Monica talked about her parents coming over right before World War II…”

“Yeah, but on Frank’s side your family tree goes right back to colonial America,” Ben said, smirking.

“No way!” Debbie said.

“It’s true-there’s a direct line going back to Frank’s eight times great grandfather, and he served in the Revolutionary War,” Ben said.

“On which side?” Fiona scoffed.

“Funny you should mention that-he was always hailed as a hero and friend to the Native Americans, but a history major at Middlebury College in Vermont did a research paper and found evidence that Padraic Gallagher most likely tried to pull off a double cross in a transaction he was handling for some Loyalist businessmen. They wanted him to trade small pox riddled blankets and fire water to Nipmuc Indians for supplies, but their ultimate goal was to kill them off or at least make them so useless with alcohol that they could take their lands. But good old Padraic figured he could sell the blankets and booze to the militia men that were beginning to crop up in the central part of the colony of Massachusetts. The student found some old diary of Paddy’s in the archive of a small library. In it he alluded to a night when he was sampling the fire water ‘just to keep warm’ and he drank so much he passed out and kicked a half empty bottle over next to his campfire. It caught and trailed the fire right to the pile of blankets and bottles he had unpacked from his mule and the whole thing went up in flames, so the next day he ran to what is now Vermont rather than face his employers, and joined the Green Mountain Boys in their fight to end British tyranny.”

“So, he was a war hero?” Fiona asked skeptically.

“Not really, there’s no evidence he ever saw battle, but after the war the infected blankets scandal came to light-one of the men involved confessed all on his deathbed hoping to buy his way into heaven-and Frank’s great granddad times eight was hailed as a friend of the Nipmuc thereafter-they thought he had destroyed the blankets and whiskey on purpose,” Ben said. “Anyway, even if it’s by marriage, it’ll move you way down on the list of deportees if you have claim to a family line that’s been here a long time.”

Everyone was quiet for a moment, mulling things over.

“I’ll do it,” Ian’s voice rang out clear in the room. It was the first thing he had said since coming back downstairs.

“Do what?” Debbie asked.

“I’ll marry Mickey.”

Everyone again started talking at once, except Ian-and Mickey, who just stared at the redhead with a look Ian couldn’t read. He was either surprised or pissed off, those were Ian’s guesses.

Ben raised his voice to be heard over the hubbub.

“That’s noble of you, Ian, but gays are going to be the next group after immigrants to lose all their rights-the president promised that to Dence when he asked him to be his running mate. Pretty soon gay marriage will probably be abolished, and then the administration will go right down the line revoking trans rights, reproductive rights, women’s rights, human rights…”

Everyone had quieted down to listen to that, and now they were all more downcast than ever.

“So, what do you expect us to do?” Ian asked.

“Well, Ian, you had the right idea,” Ben said. “Just the wrong Milkovich. You should marry Mandy, and you,” he added, turning to Fiona, “should marry Mickey.”

“No fuckin’ way,” Mickey said.

“Mickey, it’s the only thing that’ll keep you even relatively safe,” Ben insisted.

“I’ll marry you, Mickey,” Debbie said.

“That’s sweet, Debs, but you’re too young. ICE would not be slowed down by a sixteen year old bride,” Ben explained. “It’s gotta be Fiona-although I suppose Mandy here could marry Lip instead of…”

“NO FUCKING WAY!” Mickey yelled loud enough to set off a dog barking next door. He guiltily looked back at the couch but Yevgeny was still miraculously asleep.

“Mickey, believe me, I don’t suggest this solution lightly. And hopefully it’ll be temporary-I can’t see this fucker getting re-elected, although I couldn’t see him getting elected in the first place. But, anyway, if your ex-wife wasn’t safe, you’re certainly not safe-and neither is your son.”

That stopped Mickey’s heart for a few beats. How could any government go after a little kid? If someone as tough and street smart as Svetlana got nabbed, he supposed they could get anyone.

“Fuck,” Mickey murmured. “Okay, seems we’ve got no choice.”

Fiona and Ian and Mandy nodded. Fiona hadn’t even seen Yevgeny yet, but she could just picture how small and innocent he was in all this. And looking at Ian, she knew she had to do anything to help his…Milkoviches, for his sake.

Jimmy/Ben nodded. “Okay. I won’t be able to be in touch much, but I’ll do everything I can to keep you informed. The most important thing to remember is travel in groups. Mickey and Mandy, you should move in here right away, and if you have to go to your house to get your stuff, wait till daylight and ALL of you go-you too, Kev. And don’t make it obvious you’re moving out, if at all possible. Just grab the bare minimum of stuff you’ll need and get it over here in one go.

Then, as far as the weddings go, one couple can just get the license and get it done in city hall, but one of you should make a big splash out of having a ‘real’ wedding ceremony-my guess is that’ll be Ian and Mandy. Put stuff on social media, if you don’t have accounts, set them up, especially on Facebook, the Russians love Facebook. Post pictures leading up to the wedding and make it all as lovey-dovey as possible so ICE buys it that you got married for real.”

Mickey had a scowl on his face and his arms folded over his chest. This all sounded horrid to him, but he had to concede ‘Ben Franklin’ there had a point.

 

 

 

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

“Ben” left shortly thereafter, leaving the rest of the assembled group with more questions than answers. A bunch of loud talking ensued and Mickey walked away to get back to Yevgeny after Jimmy/Steve/Ben whatever went out the kitchen door.

“You can bring him upstairs,” Ian’s voice quietly said behind Mickey. Mickey whirled around but Ian was keeping a wary distance-he was still closer to the kitchen than the couch. “You guys can have Frank’s old room-Debbie and Mandy have already decided to share Deb’s room.”

Mickey sighed and leaned down to pick up his son, who was luckily still sound asleep under Mickey’s jacket. He looked back at Ian and raised his eyebrows. Ian walked toward the stairs, keeping the couch in between him and Mickey.

Once they were in the room Frank used to use, Ian said, “Give me a minute to put clean sheets on the bed.”

Mickey stepped back out of the doorway so Ian could strip the bed and throw the sheets down the laundry chute and get a clean set out of a hall closet. He made the bed up quickly and motioned Mickey to come in.

“We can push the bed against the wall, so,” he paused but then went on, “he won’t roll out.”

“Good idea,” Mickey murmured. Ian quickly moved a narrow dresser out of the way and shoved one end of the bed, then the other, up against the wall.

“Uh, there’s only one pillow, but I think Fiona has extra…”

“We’ll be fine,” Mickey cut him off. He had noticed the few items in the room, lined up with military precision on top of the dresser and nightstand. “This your room now?”

“Not really,” Ian said. “Frank disappeared, we think he’s staying with some widow or divorced lady, so while he’s been out of here I snagged the room, but my old bed isn’t being used and Carl and Lip are both away, so there’s plenty of room back in there with Liam.”

“I don’t want to put you out, man,” Mickey said, but then stopped himself from adding anything else, realizing there was no way he wanted to sleep in Ian’s old bed. At least this was a room he- and more importantly _they_ -had never used.

“It’s fine-if Frank was back I’d move in with Liam again in a second. Sounds like you guys are gonna be here a while, you might as well be as comfortable as possible. There’s two of you, you should have the double bed.”

Ian watched as Mickey gently put Yevgeny down on the bed.

“He’s getting big,” Ian said in a soft voice.

“That’s what happens when you don’t see him for over a year,” Mickey said. Ian winced. He had figured Svetlana told Mickey he disappeared from Yev’s life just as he had Mickey’s. Or Mickey was referring to missing that time with Yev himself, Ian realized. That hurt just as bad.

“Mickey, I’m sorr…”

“Shouldn’t you be gettin’ back to sleep? Your sister said somethin’ about you workin’ early shifts.” Mickey’s tone was cold and hard.

“Uh, yeah. Um, there’s clothes and stuff in these drawers, if you wanted something to sleep in.”

Mickey didn’t even bother to answer that offer. He was staring down at his sleeping son, his posture stiff and Ian knew he wanted to be left alone. He left the room and quietly pulled the door shut.

The next day was a bit easier for Mickey, since Ian was at work. Mandy and Mickey discussed Ben’s suggestions about setting up social media accounts and Debbie and Fiona peppered them with questions about their recent pasts to get everyone caught up before Debbie left for school and Fi went to work.

There wasn’t much to tell, and of course the Milkoviches kept most of their business to themselves, but basic details such as when Mickey got out (and how) and when Mandy had moved back and where they were working now were provided willingly enough.

Ben had recommended that Mickey take Yevgeny out of his preschool. There was only about a month left so the kid wouldn’t be missing out on much, plus an obvious, easy way to draw Mickey out would be for the government agents to nab the kid.

“They wouldn’t separate kids from their parents, would they?” Fiona had scoffed in disbelief when Ben brought it up as he was leaving the night before.

“Fiona, they already took his mother away-they wouldn’t think twice about taking him away from Mickey to get him to do whatever they want,” Ben explained.

“I can’t believe this is America,” Debbie had said.

Mickey had no problem withdrawing Yevgeny from the “school”-it was a program run out of a church basement and was completely voluntary. Mickey and Svetlana had already paid up the non-refundable fees for the school year, so taking Yevgeny out didn’t hurt the program at all.

Mickey wanted to go over to the house to get their stuff, but Mandy convinced him to wait till Kev and Ian could join them.

“We need Kev’s truck, if nothing else,” she said, silently praying she wasn’t going to have to go toe to toe with Mickey about needing Ian there as well. She knew she’d feel safer with more eyes open and more bodies to fight off anyone, should it become necessary. Luckily Mickey just grumbled an agreement to wait for Kev and they left it at that. They spent the rest of the day keeping Yevgeny entertained while they had the Gallagher house to themselves. Liam had graciously offered to let Yevgeny play with any of his toys he wanted before he left for school and Yev was delighted with the action figures and Matchbox cars he got to get his hands on.

Debbie got home from school at two, and Ian came in from work about an hour later.

“I texted Kev, he was leaving The Alibi a few minutes ago and should be next door with the truck by the time I get changed,” Ian said to the room at large, trying to avoid looking at Mickey.

That gave Mickey a chance to take a long look at Ian. He’d never had a uniform kink (“except you did think Ian looked hot back when he wore his ROTC fatigues” his traitorous brain whispered), but even if he had, Ian’s EMT uniform looked too much like the ones cops and CO’s wore to get Mickey going. And his shirt was too big, Mickey bitchily told that quiet voice in his head. And polyester pants just made a dude’s balls sweat, plus…oh, Ian was walking up the stairs now. Good.

Speaking of balls sweating, Mickey couldn’t wait to change his underwear, get into some fresh clothes. He had slept in his boxers and the T shirt he had been wearing yesterday, no way was he going to borrow anything of Gallagher’s.

Ian bounded back down the stairs after a few minutes, smelling of soap and his hair all wet. Mickey grinned to himself-a guy would only grab a shower before getting all sweaty and dirty moving shit if his polyester pants he was stuck in and sweating in all day made it necessary.  

They left Yevgeny in Debbie’s capable babysitting hands and walked two doors down the sidewalk. Kev had the truck on the street, ready to roll. They walked up to the cab and Ian opened the door for Mandy.

“I’ll ride in back,” Ian said, realizing only three people would fit up front.

Mandy looked at Mickey for a long moment, but when it was obvious he wasn’t going to say anything she said, “I’ll ride in the back with Ian.”

“You don’t have to do that,” Ian said.

Mickey rolled his eyes. “I’ll walk, you guys ride in the truck and I’ll see ya there.”

Everyone yelled “No!” all at once.

“That defeats the purpose of never being someplace alone, jackass,” Mandy said, walking to the back of the truck and climbing up on the back bumper before slinging her leg up and over the tailgate. Mickey made a move to follow her, but Ian stepped in his way and got in the back with Mandy. Mickey huffed and climbed into the cab with Kevin and slammed the door.

At the Milkovich house, Mickey gave Iggy a quick rundown of what was going on as he threw a bunch of Yev’s clothes and toys and pillow and his favorite blanket into garbage bags.

“You guys ain’t living here no more? For how long?” Iggy said.

“Don’t know,” Mickey shrugged, taking one last look around Yevgeny’s room for anything he might have missed. “What do you care? You’ll have the whole place to yourself.”

“Couple buddies of mine and me were thinking about going down to Florida or someplace, maybe find some jobs, bang new chicks,” Iggy said, waiting for Mickey to find the flaws in the plan-he always did. Usually Iggy was appreciative, his brother had saved his ass more than a few times, but this was something he really wanted to do. Chicago was always the same, he wanted to see a different part of the world.

Mickey tied off the garbage bag and slung it over his shoulder. “No reason you can’t leave too-we’ll board up the windows and shut off the power and water.”

Iggy’s face lit up like a kid at Christmas. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Mickey nodded. Without Iggy around, that’d be one less person to worry about. Despite what Jim-Ben-whatever had said about Mickey’s half-brothers being safe, if none of them were around, no one could hassle them-or worse-trying to get information on Mickey and Mandy’s whereabouts.

Ian and Mandy were getting stuff from her room, and Kev was staying outside with the truck to guard it from the neighborhood’s denizens. Mickey dropped Yev’s bag in the living room and headed into his own to pack up his shit.

“Yo, Mickey! This one ready to go?” Mandy yelled when she got the living room carrying a couple of bags of her own. They all agreed if they tossed a bunch of trash bags into the back of a pickup truck, everyone in the hood would think they were just getting rid of more crap, not moving out for the foreseeable future.

“Yeah, it’s all set,” Mickey called back. He stuck his head out of his door in time to see Ian pick up the bag in question and follow Mandy to the front door with it, plus a couple of others.

“Mandy! How much shit are you brining?” Mickey yelled.

“Relax, the bags Ian’s got are filled with towels and blankets and sheets, so we don’t keep using up their stuff,” Mandy called back. She yanked the door open and went out.

Mickey went back into his room and haphazardly threw a bunch of his clothes into a new bag. He was rummaging around his drawers, trying to leave all his cold weather shit, and digging under his sweaters and sweatshirts to find spring and summer stuff. His hand found something silky and he pulled out the Hawaiian shirt he had kept when Ian was on his suitcase salvage kick.

“Fuck,” Mickey whispered to himself. He really didn’t know if he could do this. Not seeing Gallagher for over a year now it was hard enough to try to forget him-the fucker and all the memories attached to him would overtake Mickey at the oddest times. But to actually live under the same roof, to play house and worse, have to watch Ian play husband to his sister, to see him interact with Yevgeny again…Mickey didn’t want to go through all that again. Just to have Ian ripped out of their lives again at some point. Because that’s what always happened between them. How the fuck did Mickey end up in a situation where he needed to trust Gallagher with his life, with his _son’s_ life, when he knew by now not to rely on him for anything?

“You need some help?” Ian’s voice startled Mickey and he had to hold in a yelp. He jammed the shirt into the bag he had been packing so Ian wouldn’t see it.

“I can fucking handle my own shit, thank you,” Mickey said in a pissed off tone. A hurt look passed over Ian’s face, and that just pissed Mickey off more. Fucker should know you don’t come up on anyone from behind, but especially not someone who did time.

“See if you can find a grocery store size bag and shove my shaving shit in there,” Mickey grumbled. Ian’s face lit up like a kid at Christmas. Yeah, gonna need to avoid that in future, Mickey thought, cramming all his clean underwear into his garbage bag.

 

 

 

 

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

Weeks went by and there was still no word about Svetlana.

The wedding plans were taking place though, and Debbie and Mandy were constantly updating their social media accounts and talking up Mandy’s impending nuptials to her “high school sweetheart” (the term made Mickey want to gag every time he saw it). Debbie was also running accounts for Mickey, but so far his Facebook page was pretty barren. His only “friends” were Mandy and Debbie and Fiona and, oddly enough, Kev, plus he didn’t want to put his place of employment or let any of his coworkers know he was on Facebook since he didn’t want whatever group might be out to grab him knowing his daily schedule. The day after Ben’s visit, Fiona had found an envelope stuffed through the mail slot with more instructions typed out on it. Ben had told them not to worry about the Milkoviches going to work as long as they never went anywhere alone, to always be surrounded by other commuters or the public in general going to and from work-he said the government had access to Mickey and Mandy’s W-2’s and stuff, but Mickey figured why push it.

His Instagram wasn’t much better, although Debbie did manage to get a picture of him flipping off the camera to post there. No pictures of Yevgeny were ever posted anywhere. Ben had made sure to drive that point home in his instructions, not that Mickey would’ve allowed it even if he had said to do it. Deb tweeted for him too, but Mickey thought anyone who knew him at all would know he wasn’t writing those himself. She kept that account looking active by retweeting a lot of sports-related tweets. She didn’t seem to really “get” guys, but Mickey figured she was young yet, she had time.

One day riding the El home, Mickey was bored and surrounded by enough strangers that he felt safe that no one would try to nab him, and he opened his phone and saw Debbie had left it logged into Facebook after tweeting for him the night before. She had a couple of posts from her day out with Ian and Mandy to buy clothes for their wedding. They were at a Salvation Army store and holding up ridiculous looking outfits and laughing. Mickey couldn’t help but notice how Ian looked genuinely happy. In the weeks they had been living under the same roof, Mickey avoided Ian as much as he possibly could, and Ian seemed to understand Mickey had no interest in talking to him and kept a respectful distance from him and Yevgeny. Ian needed nine to ten hours of sleep a night, sometimes even more when his work was particularly grueling, so for almost half of any given day, Ian was in his room with the door shut and Mickey could almost pretend he wasn’t even there. And then for a good chunk of the day one or both of them were working-that was one good thing about Ian’s job, he took a lot of weekend shifts to stay out of the house. Their paths rarely crossed, they even ate their meals at different times. Ian’s routine included taking a long run after work, showering, eating a light supper, and then heading to his room for the night. It was like living in a boarding house with other tenants you barely saw, even in passing. Mickey felt trickles of guilt about that at times-it was Ian’s house after all, he shouldn’t be the one to avoid it, but there was too much risk to take Yevgeny out unless a whole bunch of them went-Mickey to give Yev his full attention and others to keep their eyes peeled for any threats. But as far as Mickey could tell, Ian was doing well on his meds and at his job. Not that he gave a shit, he thought, logging off his phone and shoving it back in his pocket with a scowl.

When he got to the Gallaghers’ he heard raucous laughter coming from the kitchen. Even Yevgeny’s happiest, most helpless giggle, like when he was being tickled, was clearly audible from the front door. Mickey went to see what had everybody in stitches.

And immediately wished he hadn’t. Ian was giving a fashion show in for everyone as they sat around the kitchen table, looking for all the world as if he was strutting around a catwalk for Victoria’s Secret. He was wearing a powder blue tuxedo with dark blue velvet trim, a hideous matching blue shirt with ruffles all down the front, and just as Mickey got to the door, he pulled a dark blue velvet clip on bowtie from his pocket and held it up to his throat, setting the laughter off even louder and harder. Mickey bemusedly looked at the table-Mandy, Debbie, Vee, Carl (home for the summer from military school), Liam, and Fiona with Yevgeny on her lap were all there. Carl wolf-whistled at Ian when he twirled and made the bell bottoms of his pants billow out.

“Twelve bucks for the entire outfit, can you believe it?” Ian said, posing like he was in a Sunday flyer for JC Penney. “They would’ve thrown in a pair of platform shoes for another five, but they were too small for me.” He twirled again to strike another pose, but that’s when he caught Mickey standing dumbfounded in the doorway. “Shit, Mickey, when did you get home?”

“Ain’t it bad luck for you to see him like that before the wedding?” Mickey asked his sister, turning to get a beer out of the fridge instead of waiting for an answer.

“That’s just about the bride’s dress, and besides, this ain’t a real wedding,” Mandy said, rolling her eyes at Debbie. She got it.

The fun seemed to drain right out of the room. Even Yevgeny got quiet, and he had only been laughing because everyone else had been laughing.

Mickey felt guilty. If he had known why everyone was having such a good time, he would’ve snuck up the front stairs, let them have their fun.

“Uh, what do you think?” Ian’s quiet voice traveled into his ears as Mickey straightened up and opened the beer bottle. It’d be easy enough to pretend he didn’t hear it, and the people at the table were already beginning to discuss what they should have for supper and apparently didn’t hear it. Mickey cursed his always-alert-to-Ian eardrums.

“It’s a shame about those platform shoes-they would’ve really accentuated the bell bottoms,” Mickey said, and put the bottle to his lips and raised an eyebrow at Ian. Damn, he even made the ridiculous monkey suit look good. The seventies may have been an ugly era, but the tux was made for a long, lithe body like Ian’s.

Ian let out a surprised laugh, and then turned to the table. “I better get this to the cleaner’s before they close. Mandy, you want me to take your dress too, right?”

“Yeah, I’ll go get it,” she said, getting up and running past him with a quick kiss on the cheek before she headed up the back stairs.

Mickey took another bigger swallow of his beer and turned his back on Ian. “Hey, Squirt, were you a good boy today?”

“I was!” Yevgeny said proudly, scrambling down off of Fiona’s lap to get to his dad. Mickey led him out of the kitchen without another look back. Ian watched them go, then shook his head to get himself moving to change out of the polyester suit.

The next day, a Friday, while Mickey was at work, everyone except Fiona went to a local park to get it ready for the wedding, which was to be held on Saturday. Fiona stayed behind to watch Yevgeny while everyone else headed out with rakes and trashcans and garbage bags to tidy up the corner of the park that the city had given Ian and Mandy a permit to use for the day. Friday early afternoons were slow enough at The Alibi that Kev could even be freed up to lend a hand. Ian handed out latex gloves to everyone who was raking stuff up so they wouldn’t come in direct contact with all the hypodermic needles and used condoms that were scattered about in the bushes.

They were waiting to decorate until right before the ceremony-everyone knew anything they put up and left unattended would just be torn down and/or desecrated. Everyone was in a good mood and Mandy kept reminding Ian to reapply sunscreen so he wouldn’t look like a lobster in their wedding photos.

“Hey, what about me? It’s just as important for the maid of honor to not be burnt in your pictures,” Debbie said, holding her hand out for Ian to pass her the SPF 85. Debs was the maid of honor and Liam was going to be Ian’s best man. Carl didn’t give a shit and Lip was just not an option, although he would be at the ceremony. No one considered asking Mickey, not for one second. Ian had gone out of his way to explain to eight year old Liam that the wedding was just make believe and not legally binding. Liam had no idea what Ian meant, but he nodded his head and that seemed to make his big brother happy.

The big day was finally upon them. It was a perfect June day, not too hot, not muggy, just clear and sunny and warm and comfortable. The forecast said it’d be in the mid-seventies till sundown, and then temperatures would only drop into the high sixties. For Chicago that was downright balmy. Kev, Ian, and Lip got to the park two hours before the ceremony and set the picnic tables for the reception and a small stand they were using as a bar. Technically their permit didn’t allow for them to serve alcohol in the park, but Kev wasn’t charging anyone for the drinks and everyone figured the cops would turn a blind eye-if any even patrolled the area during the festivities. The guys also strung twinkle lights in the trees in the corner of the park that they’d be using, and hung about a dozen little wind chimes Debbie and Mandy had scoured local dollar stores for.

A friend of Carl’s had volunteered to DJ the reception, and he showed up with his equipment just as the men were finishing up their decorating. A couple of Ian’s fellow EMTs arrived to stand guard while Ian, Lip, and Kev left to get dressed for the ceremony. Ian had invited the people he was closest to from work, and they all accepted his explanation that the wedding was “sort of a green card type situation”. Two of the biggest and burliest ones volunteered to watch over the park until they took their seats as guests.

The ceremony was for five o’clock, with a light picnic supper and open bar reception immediately following. They had the park till midnight according to the permit, and luckily it was in a business, not residential, zone, so noise complaints wouldn’t be an issue.

Back at the Gallagher house, Mandy was putting more effort into making Mickey look presentable and getting Yevgeny ready than she was spending on herself. She was using hair gel on her little nephew and it was the first time in his life he had experienced using it, so as soon as she would get his hair combed down and looking cute, he’d run his pudgy hands through it and laugh delightedly at his reflection in the mirror when it would stay standing up.

“Yevy, baby, don’t you want to look nice for auntie’s wedding?” she sighed after the third time.

“Yup!” he chirped happily, interlocking his fingers to feel the residual gel squish and stick. Mandy picked up the comb and began again. Mickey walked into the room.

“What’s the fuckin’ holdup?”

Mandy glanced over at her brother from where she and Yevgeny were sitting on Fiona’s bed. Fiona had the only mirror low enough to sit in front of in the house.

“That’s what you’re wearing?” Mandy yelped.

Mickey looked down at his ensemble. “What’s wrong with it?”

“Unrelenting black?” Mandy said, rolling her eyes. “You look like somebody died.” Mickey was wearing black jeans and his best (in his opinion) button down shirt. His black work boots completed the look.

“Mickey, it’s June, don’t you have something more…summery?”

“I could cut the sleeves off this bad boy…”

“Don’t you fuckin’ dare. Last thing I need to see on my wedding day is your farmer tan.” Her reflection scowled at Mickey from the mirror. “You should’ve let me buy you a shirt when I got Yev’s outfit.” Mandy had bought Yevgeny a cute light blue polo shirt with a little dolphin sewn onto it over the left pec and a pair of khakis at Target. The shirt was a close match to Ian’s tux and it really brought out Yevgeny’s eyes.

Mickey scoffed. “Don’t think I could pull off that clean cut look-best to leave that to Yevgeny.” He thought for a minute. “I do have one summer shirt that’s not a T shirt…”

“What are you standing there for? Go put it on! Then take your kid so I can get dressed.” Mandy was still in a robe, her dress hanging on the back of Fiona’s bedroom door.

“I’ll take him now-we’ll see ya at the thing,” Mickey said. Most of the guests were walking to the park, but Kev was going to drive Mandy and Ian over in his truck. “Come on, little man, let’s go wash that gunk off your hands.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

When the soon to be wedded couple-and Kev-got to the park, all the guests were already sitting in the makeshift seating area in various folding chairs and lawn chairs. All the Gallaghers that weren’t in the wedding party were there, even Frank, and Vee was there with her girls, and Ian’s few EMT invitees and their plus ones and Mickey and Yevgeny and Carl’s DJ friend and a bartender from The Alibi made up the entire assembly. Mandy hadn’t bothered to invite any of her coworkers from any of the temp jobs she had been on, she wasn’t particularly close to any of them and her sham wedding would’ve been too hard to explain.

Kev had gotten himself ordained online to perform the ceremony, so he took his place up at the front, under the trees with the wind chimes tinkling softly in the slight breeze. He solemnly nodded at everyone and then brought his hands up in a “please rise” gesture. All the guests stood and watched as Ian and Mandy walked down the aisle between the two sections of chairs.

Mandy’s second hand dress was actually quite pretty. It was made up of two pieces, a dark blue shift under a lace-effect sleeveless top layer made from silvery thread. The way the dress moved with her gave it a sort of mermaid-like vibe. Mickey hadn’t seen the dress beforehand, but he liked it.

Mandy, however, did not have the same reaction when she realized what her brother was wearing. Somewhere he had dug up the ugliest Hawaiian shirt she had ever seen. She only caught a quick glimpse of it as she walked past him, but the overall impression she got was of pale green and garish orange. She glanced to her side to see if Ian had noticed, and his head was turned as far as he could get it, still staring at Mickey even after they walked by. If Mandy hadn’t been holding on to his arm, he probably would’ve walked right into Kev when they got to their destination. Mandy couldn’t begin to imagine where Mickey had got that shirt, she could barely imagine him being willing to wear it, and she had just seen him doing so with her own eyes.

At another signal from Kev, the guests sat back down.

“Hey, everybody,” Kev said in a loud voice so everyone could hear him. “We’re gathered here today to watch Ian and Mandy get joined in wedded matrimony,” he read off a piece of paper he was holding. He looked up and glanced over the crowd. “Since I don’t read too good, Mandy and Ian are going to recite their own vows, which they picked from movies they really dig.” He nodded at Mandy.

She turned to face Ian, and took both his hands in hers.

“I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.”  

Ian replied, “I will.”  He looked at Kev for a second, and Kev nodded at him to go ahead. Ian’s vows (that Debbie later told Mickey was actually Edward’s wedding toast to Bella from those dumb vampire movies he never watched) were a bit longer.

“It’s an extraordinary thing to meet someone who you can bare your soul to, and will accept you for what you are. I’ve been waiting what seems like a very long time to get beyond what I am, and with Mic..Mandy, I feel like I can finally begin.” The way almost all the eyes in the park turned towards Mickey, he figured everyone caught Ian’s little almost slip of the tongue. “No measure of time with you will be long enough, let’s start with forever.”

Mandy answered, “I will.”

“Okay, by the power vested in me by GetOrdainedWithin24Hrs.com, I now pronounce you husband and wife. Uh, did you guys want to kiss?” Kev said.

Mandy stood up on her tiptoes and placed a soft kiss on Ian’s cheek. Ian blushed bright red, even the people sitting furthest from him could see it.

“Short and sweet,” Fiona, who was sitting next to Mickey, observed.

“Thank fuck,” Mickey muttered.

Ian and Mandy turned towards their guests and everyone got up and walked towards them to congratulate them, except for the bartender and the DJ-and Mickey, who followed the bartender to the make shift stand that had been set up. Fiona had Yevgeny with her, and before Mickey could talk to the bartender Fiona and Vee walked over to him, all the little kids in tow.

“Mickey, Vee and Kev are going to take the kids back to their house,” Fiona said.

“Already? Don’t they want to eat?” Mickey said. The plan was that Vee was going to keep all three kids overnight so the grownups could relax and have fun without worrying about them. Vee didn’t mind missing the party, she had to do inventory at the bar first thing the next morning.

“I’m gonna make chicken nuggets and mac and cheese,” Vee said. “They’d rather have that than ham salad finger sandwiches.” The three kids nodded vigorously.

“If you’re sure you don’t mind…” Mickey said.

“I don’t mind-I’m ready to get my feet out of these strappy sandals and take off this tight dress,” Vee said. Kev’s gonna drive us over in the truck and then walk back so he’s not driving drunk later.” They didn’t have car seats in the truck, but the park was only a couple blocks from their house and no one could nab Yevgeny if he was in a vehicle, so the seatbelts would have to do.

Mickey picked up Yev to carry him to Kevin’s truck. “You’re going to be a good boy for Auntie Vee, right Squirt?”

“Yes, Daddy,” Yevgeny smiled. Mickey smiled back. The kid was sweet, that was for damn sure. Must’ve been something that skipped Mickey and Svetlana’s generation, he thought. Yevgeny had taken everything that happened the last few weeks in stride. Sometimes he cried for Svetlana in the morning, because once Mickey was out of prison and back in his life that’s when he’d see her, but for the most part he was happy enough with his dad and Mandy and Fiona and Debbie looking after him, and he loved trailing around after Liam and the older boy was good about playing with him and watching what Yevgeny wanted on TV. Plus Yev always lit up around Vee and the twins, he had good memories from his time living with them. Mickey knew he’d be happy sleeping at their house again, although he did tell Vee to call him if Yev wanted to go back to the Gallaghers’ later.

After Mickey put Yevgeny in the truck, he stepped back so Kev could get in behind the wheel. Kevin said, “Hey, go see Jose and tell him you’re Mickey-we brought some special stuff over from the bar that we’re keeping on the DL.”

Mickey walked back into the park, wondering what Kev was talking about. Mickey figured the “open bar” was just going to be a keg of cheap beer and some warm wine, and he didn’t care what kind of beer it was, he knew he needed several drinks to get through the rest of this event.

“Yo, Jose? Kev told me to tell you I’m Mickey,” Mickey said, when he got back to the stand. Lip and Frank already had two red cups each and were busy sucking down the contents.

“Uh, warm day for it, isn’t it?” Frank said, scurrying away as Mickey gave him a dirty look.

Jose said to Lip, “You good for now, bro?” and Lip took the hint and walked away also. Jose looked around to be sure no one else was too close, and waved Mickey around to the backside of the stand. He opened a cardboard box on the ground, revealing the tops of a few bottles. “We got vodka, tequila, some whiskey…Kev doesn’t want everyone to know, since these freeloaders will drink it all, but he said you and your sister are cool.”

Mickey raised his eyebrows. He didn’t know what warranted this special treatment, but he wasn’t about to turn it down. “That Jack Daniels in there?” Jose nodded. “Gimme a shot, please. You know what? Make it a double.”

Once Mickey started drinking the hard stuff, there seemed to be no way he could slow down. Watching Gallagher fake marry his sister was a lot harder than he imagined it would be. He began to think about how Ian must have felt watching him get married to Svetlana. He remembered Ian standing at the back of the hall, gulping down straight vodka as the ceremony happened. Mickey finally felt some appreciation for how fucking hard that must’ve been for Ian to watch. Especially since they had just banged right before. Today Mickey knew everything was for show and hadn’t had the fake out of reuniting with Ian right before the wedding and it was almost more than he could stand.

Kev came back from dropping off Vee and the kids and found Mickey leaning against the bar, waiting for his next drink.

“Mickey, good, you found the secret stash,” Kevin said, clapping him on the back and sending him staggering a few paces. “Figured you were gonna need more than something from a recently expired keg of PBR to get you through today.” Kev gave Mickey a wink and then pounded his hand twice on the stand and pointed at said keg while looking at Jose. Jose filled a red plastic cup and handed it across. Kev walked off to join the revelers who by this time were trying to dance to the music the DJ was blasting.

“Carl assured me his buddy had music for ‘old people’,” Fiona said to Mickey, joining him at the bar. To the bartender she said, “Wine, please?” and then turned back to Mickey. “Guess that means lots of Linkin Park. You can’t really dance to it, but it’s good for head bangin’.”

Mickey made a noncommittal noise and took another sip of his drink.

“Mandy looks real pretty,” Fiona said. “She’s doing a good job of selling this thing. Debs is going to post a lot of it-I hope whoever’s watching appreciates it.”

“Yeah,” Mickey said hollowly.

One Step Closer ended and a shout went up as the next song started and everyone realized it was Lose Yourself by Eminem. Ian and Mandy grabbed each other’s hands and started spinning around and shouting the words at each other as they jumped up and down, and by the time the song got to the chorus almost everyone else had formed a circle around the couple and chanted along. Fiona shot a look at Mickey, but when she saw he wasn’t going to budge, she dashed over to the circle and joined in.

“You better lose yourself in the music, the moment You own it, you better never let it go (go!) You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow This opportunity comes once in a lifetime you better…”

When the song ended, Mandy threw her arms around Ian’s neck and nuzzled into him. They were both laughing and beaming. Mickey tossed back another shot. Fuck sipping.

Mickey wasn’t the only Milkovich getting hammered. Mandy was drinking the entire bottle of champagne Kev and Vee had provided since Ian couldn’t have any of it. Everyone else was getting pretty sloppy too, but Mickey and Mandy were really, _really_ drunk.

By the time they got to the cake cutting (Debbie had bought three different size cakes at Costco and stacked them up to resemble tiers) and Mandy and Ian were cutely dotting frosting on each other’s noses, Fiona sidled up to Mickey and suggested that they go home-and that they make it kind of obvious they’re leaving together, so when they announce they’re married in a couple of weeks, they can act like being at their siblings’ wedding gave them the idea.

Mickey mutely stared at Fiona for a full minute, his blue eyes bleary and unfocused, and then finally said, “Fuck it, let’s go.” He grabbed the bottle of Jack Daniels from behind the bar stand and started walking next to Fiona.

Fi motioned to Carl, and he jogged over to get in position with his phone held up. Fiona told Mickey to stop walking for a second, and went to hold his hand. Mickey jerked his hand back as if he’d been burned.

“What the fuck?” he sputtered.

“Carl’s going to take a picture of us to post. Hold my hand and look back over your shoulder and smile, like this.” Fiona had her body facing Mickey’s and turned her head to look back at Carl. Mickey rolled his eyes, but complied. Carl gave Fiona a thumb’s up and Fiona quickly dropped Mickey’s hand. “Okay, he got it, let’s go.”

When they got back to the house, Fiona quickly changed into some comfortable clothes and said she was going to go hang out with Vee. Mickey was planted on the couch drinking directly from the bottle and waved at her unsteadily as she went towards the door.

Mickey might’ve dozed off for a moment, because the next thing he was aware of was Debbie plopping herself next to him on the couch, opening up her laptop. She showed Mickey video from the reception and he was feeling more and more sorry for himself as he watched the parts he was there for, and then the stuff that happened after he left. Mandy and Ian literally looked like they had stars in their eyes once it was dark enough for the lights in the trees to be noticeable.

“I changed their relationship status to “Married” on both their accounts,” Debbie said, oblivious to Mickey’s scowl that had only grown gloomier and grumpier as she showed him all the highlights of her social media blitz. “Oh, and here’s the picture Carl took of you-Fiona put it on her Facebook page already.”

Mickey had to lean closer and squint to read Fiona’s caption, which said, “Love is in the air.” Mickey snorted and burped at the same time.

“It’s a nice picture, Mickey,” Debbie defended. “You two look really happy.” The lighting was really soft too, they had been leaving right as dusk descended and there was a glow from the setting sun behind their heads and limning their bodies with gold.

“I look fuckin’ drunk, cuz I was,” Mickey corrected.

“I’m going to go upstairs and edit some videos to songs,” Debbie announced. “Carl’s friend’s choices weren’t very romantic.”

“Romantic,” Mickey thought to himself, then snorted again. Wasn’t supposed to be romantic, just supposed to be about a piece of paper that will hopefully keep Mandy safe. Mickey sighed deeply. He looked around. Where was Mandy? Where was everybody? The house was usually crawling with people like a fuckin’ ant farm. Mickey didn’t like the quiet just then. It was too quiet. He decided he’d go two doors down and pick up Yevgeny, bring him home. He stood up and the room spun around alarmingly. He bounced his ass back down onto the couch. “Better have a shower first,” he said to the empty room. “Sober up before getting the kid.” He stood up slower that time, and the room didn’t spin all the way round.

In the shower he let the warm water pour down the back of his neck while he held onto the showerhead for balance. He still felt like the room was swaying, but maybe that was just him. When he felt steady enough to let go his hands fumbled for the soap and he worked up a lather and started spreading it randomly over his body…till he got to his dick.

He closed his eyes and let himself imagine it was Ian’s hand encompassing his cock and sliding back to his balls and massaging the soap around with his fingertips. He tried to stop his thoughts, but the booze had him letting down his guard and it had been so long since he’d had any kind of release because it was awkward sharing a bed with his three year old son and because there were so many Gallaghers in the house at any given time waiting to use the bathroom that Mickey usually got in and out as quickly as possible. His mind wasn’t letting him shut off the figments of his imagination that remembered how good Ian used to handle him, literally, in this type of situation.

He closed his eyes again and his treacherous brain supplied a memory of Ian pressing his body up against Mickey’s from behind, he was just drunk enough to be able to almost feel him there. The heat that would come off of Ian, their skin melding together as the water got rerouted around where they were pressed against each other. Ian’s strong muscles enveloping Mickey everywhere-those thighs, those abs, those arms. Mickey’s hand was moving faster over his cock, which was not suffering from whiskey dickitis in the least, despite Mickey being well beyond the legal limit. He was getting harder and harder and when he imagined Ian placing his tongue right on a certain spot behind his ear he came hard. He rode out the orgasm, his toes curling, his body taut and finally, finally came back to himself and realized he must’ve used up all the hot water-the liquid pouring down his back now was cold and his balls were shriveling up into his body.

“Should’ve thought of the cold shower to begin with,” Mickey mumbled to himself, looking down to be sure all his own fluid was off his body and then turning the water off. He reached for the towel hanging on a rack, belatedly hoping it was clean enough and that Carl hadn’t used it to clean up something along the lines of what he had just done. Then he realized Carl wouldn’t have bothered to hang a towel he used, and it was probably Ian who had used it last after his shower that morning. “Stop thinking about that fucker,” Mickey sternly told himself.

He went back to his bedroom and looked at the bed. It looked inviting. He decided he better lie down for a minute before going to pick up Yev.

He opened his eyes and looked toward the window. The sky was just turning light outside and he realized he must have fallen asleep. He sat up and shut off the bedside lamp that was still on from the night before. His head howled in protest to being brought upright and Mickey knew right away he had the mother of all hangovers. He finally had a grasp on how drunk he had been the night before and knew it was a lucky thing he didn’t stagger over to the Balls’ house to pick up Yevgeny.

Mickey went to the kitchen to get some water to take aspirin with, but he stopped short when he got to the bottom of the stairs and saw Ian’s ass as he bent over tying the laces on his running shoes. Mickey was going to try to sneak back up the stairs, but Ian must’ve heard him or sensed his presence, because he quickly stood up and turned around, meeting Mickey’s eyes.

“Sorry…” they both started, then stopped. Mickey shook the tablets in his hand like he was getting ready to roll some dice. “I was just coming down for some water, got a bitch of a headache,” he said, wondering why the fuck he was explaining himself. His traitorous mind kept flashing the images he had been having of Ian during his shower, and he just wanted to get away from this very real reminder.

“Uh, yeah, I bet Mandy’s going to have one too,” Ian said, not knowing what to say. “I couldn’t sleep so I was going out for a run before everyone gets up and heads back to the park to clean up after the last night.”

Mickey nodded, and winced at the motion.

“So, I guess I’ll get going then,” Ian said, finally moving so Mickey could enter the kitchen. Ian rushed out the backdoor and then leaned against it once it was firmly shut behind him. He told himself it was wishful thinking, but, for a second there, when their eyes met, he could’ve sworn he saw a flash of desire come over Mickey’s face.

 

 

 

 


	6. Chapter 6

After Ian got back from his run and everyone else had breakfast-or at least coffee, in Mandy’s case-everyone headed over to finish cleaning up the park from the night before. Carl and Lip had taken down the lights and wind chimes and Kev and Jose had packed up the bar stand and keg and brought them back to The Alibi at the end of the reception since that stuff would’ve been stolen had they left it, but there was still trash and other remainders of the party to dispose of.

Vee and Kev had their morning free after doing inventory, so they went along and brought the girls to run around the park. Debbie and Mandy put themselves in charge of watching the twins and Yevgeny. Mandy was wearing oversized sunglasses and moving pretty slow, but Debbie had no problem keeping the three toddlers out of the way of the clean-up crew.

Everything was pretty much set to rights-if anything the park looked better than it had before they had the wedding there-when Mickey noticed a couple of clean cut guys in suits that were obviously watching the group. Mickey was instantly suspicious; no one dressed like that in a neighborhood like this. It made him nervous. He scooped Yev up and put him in Ian’s arms. Ian was surprised by the sudden move, but wrapped his arms around the child instantly.

“There’s a couple of guys over there watching us,” Mickey said low into Ian’s ear away from where he was holding Yevgeny, so only Ian could hear. “You’re the fastest. Run and take Yev someplace safe.”

Ian looked at Mickey with wide eyes, but nodded his understanding. He was just about to take off when one of the guys yelled, “Ben sent us!”

Mickey put one hand on Yevgeny’s back and one hand on Ian’s forearm, keeping them in place for the moment but ready to tell them to go if the guys got any closer.

“Um, ‘Jimmy Steve’? You know? He told us to give you a message,” the other guy yelled. Everyone relaxed a bit hearing most of Ben’s other aliases, but Mickey kept his hands on both Yevgeny and Ian.

The men cautiously came closer, but not too close. Just close enough so they didn’t have to yell to be heard.

“Ben wanted us to tell you that he’ll be dropping by the kitchen late-like probably after midnight. He has some news,” one of the messengers said. Fiona nodded and the men nodded, then walked away.

Everyone grouped around Mickey and started talking.

“What do you make of that?” Vee asked.

“Could be a trap,” Lip said. “Making sure we’ll all be in one place tonight. If they were here to try to take Mickey and Mandy and, uh, you know,” he nodded towards Yev, “maybe it was too risky outside in a public spot like this.”

Mickey’s head was pounding again, but this time with fear for his son. He was wishing he had thought to grab those guys and drag them back to the Gallaghers’. Between him, Kev, Carl, and Lip they probably could’ve over powered them and, once they got them in private, work them over till Mickey was sure they were telling the truth.

“I can take Yevgeny to Rita’s and stay over,” Ian said. “My boss,” he added, explaining to Mickey. “She loves kids. I’ve taken Liam over there lots of times. I’m sure she won’t mind.”

Mickey chewed on his lower lip and looked around, trying to come up with another plan. It killed him to have to trust Ian, but he knew deep down Ian would do anything to protect Yevgeny. Mickey could trust him with his kid, if not his own heart.

“Yeah, okay. Just go right there now, alright? Get on the El or a bus or however you get there and stay surrounded by people till you’re safe inside. Don’t take him anywhere else once you get there-like, if you need food, order in.” Mickey dug his debit card out of his wallet. Ian tried to wave it off, but Mickey jammed it into Ian’s front pocket. “I’ll let you know when it’s safe to come back.”

Ian nodded, and Mickey leaned in to give Yevgeny a hug. “You be a good boy, okay? Have fun sleeping over with Ian?”

“Okay,” Yevgeny chirped happily. He was always trying to get to play with the tall redhead whenever he was around the house, he was happy to finally be getting a chance.

Mickey kissed Yevgeny’s cheek and patted him on the back. He gave Ian’s arm a brief squeeze and said, “Go,” in a gentle voice. Ian set off at a brisk pace, walking in the opposite direction from where the guys in suits went.

That night it was actually Ben/Jimmy/Steve who showed up. He tapped softly on the back door at about half past midnight and said, “Fiona? It’s me,” in a quiet voice just above a whisper so she’d recognize his voice. He walked in to find everyone already seated at the table, staring at him.

“What the fuck was up with sending the Young Republicans to pass your spy message to us at the park?” Mickey bitched.

“I wanted to be sure no one brained me with a baseball bat when I showed up in the wee hours,” Ben replied. “I know how this house operates. And those guys aren’t Republicans,” he added. “We actually call our group the Night Riders.”

Kev said, “Like that show with the bitchy talking car?”

“No, like Paul Revere,” Ben replied.

“Oh, cool,” Debbie said, buying into the romance of it immediately.

Mickey rolled his eyes. “Your guys said you have some news to tell us?”

“I do.” Ben thought about asking Fiona for a beer, he was parched, but he also figured that was a great way to see Mickey’s knuckle tattoos up close and personal, so he figured he talk first, drink soon-he hoped.

“We know where Svetlana is.”

The whole table let out an uproar, except for Mickey, who was keeping his eyes laser focused on Ben and waiting to hear the whole story.

Ben reached for the mug in front of Fiona and grimaced as he swallowed down some cold coffee and motioned for everyone to quiet down so he could continue. “She’s being detained in a railway car in southern California, right near the Mexican border. Our intel has discovered the  Russians are waiting till they have enough women rounded up to put them on a ship to Vladivostok.”

“So what happens next?” Debbie asked, leaning over the table in her excitement to hear Ben’s answer.

“We monitor the situation,” he replied, and Debbie sat back with a small groan. That didn’t sound very exciting. “As far as my group can tell, all the women are relatively unharmed. We’ve had a definite sighting of Svetlana and she was walking around.”

“Walking around where?” Fiona said.

“They let them out of the cars once a day, in shifts. Probably to let them get some sunlight, prevent rickets or scabies or whatever people get when they don’t have enough vitamin D.”

“Rickets,” Mickey said quietly. He was lost in his own thoughts, thinking about how tough Svetlana is, and wondering what her captors did to subdue her. He realized he had to cling to the thought that she’d do anything to get back to Yevgeny, but it killed him to think about men touching her or worse in this situation where she was helpless to fight back.

“How the hell do you know about rickets?” Lip asked. Mickey came back from his dark thoughts and glared at Lip.

“Mickey knows tons of weird shit-watch Jeopardy with him sometime,” Mandy said.

“Pass,” Lip said.

“It wasn’t a serious offer, fuck face-I know your fragile ego wouldn’t be able to handle it,” Mandy said. Since Lip moved home from college from the summer, avoiding him was taking its toll on Mandy. She knew for sure all her old feelings for him were dead and buried, but all that left was an extreme dislike for his way of looking down on anyone he thought wasn’t as smart as him, which definitely included the Milkoviches. But for that matter, it also included the rest of his own family, and it pissed her off to see how he treated his siblings with so much disdain.

“We’re getting off track here…” Kev said.

“So what’s the plan? You go in and rescue Svetlana and all the other women?” Debbie asked, still hoping for a whiff of adventure.

“Not at this juncture,” Ben said. “We need to gather more intel and formulate a solid plan. If we tip our hand too early, they could just bundle the group off to somewhere else.”

“Or kill them,” Lip said.

“LIP!” almost everyone yelled, and Debbie smacked him in the chest and Mandy flipped him off. Mickey didn’t say anything, but looked at Ben. Ben lowered his eyes and Mickey knew that Lip had voiced a very real possibility.

Before Ben left, he took the time to eat some microwaved frozen pizza and drink a few cups of coffee. It was a gross combination, but he had miles to travel after he left the Gallaghers’ house (and Chicago, but he couldn’t tell them about it). He made a point of talking to Mickey alone.

“I know it may not seem like it, but we’re doing everything we can to ensure Svetlana comes back safely. We do have some plans under consideration, but it’s too soon to know what we’re going to do. As soon as I know anything concrete, I’ll get word to you somehow.”

“I appreciate it,” Mickey said, tiredly.

“In the meantime, try not to worry too much and keep doing what you’re doing. Mandy and Ian’s wedding looked good on social media-won’t be long before it’s you and Fiona, huh?” Ben said, and Mickey could tell the idea sort of bothered him.

“Look, man, it’s just a fucking piece of paper-and it was your idea.”

“I know,” Ben said, nodding quickly in a bit of a show of nerves. “I meant to ask that first night, but it got lost in all the excitement-do you have any documentation that you’re divorced from Svetlana? I mean, it’s okay if you don’t-she’s in the country illegally and your marriage wasn’t exactly legit, but it’d be easier all around…”

Mickey cut him off. “I’ve got divorce papers. They were served to me in prison and after I signed them I got my own notarized copy. I’ve got it here with my other important stuff like Yev’s immunization records and shit.”

Mickey texted Ian after Ben left that all was well and Ian could bring Yev back to the house in the morning.

 


	7. Chapter 7

In the morning, Mickey woke up to find Ian and Yevgeny already came home and that Ian tried to cook breakfast before anyone was up.

Mickey walked into the kitchen to find his son playing on a clean bath towel Ian had spread in front of the washer and dryer, happily zooming some of Liam’s Matchbox cars around the towel, but Ian himself far from happy. Mickey could tell Ian was visibly upset as Fiona and Debbie were laying into him about something. After listening for a few seconds, Mickey gleaned it was because Ian burned some pancakes he was trying to make.

“I just wanted to have breakfast ready when you all got up-like a little surprise for once. I know you were all up late…” Ian was trying to say, but his sisters interrupted him.

“Ian, have you been taking your meds?” Debbie asked, suspicion and concern battling it out in her tone.

“The past couple of days maybe have been too exciting for you,” Fiona added, sounding like a judgmental nurse in a health class video. “There’s been a lot going on, you need to be careful not to get too worked up.”

Mickey could tell from the other side of the room they were making everything worse and he could see Ian shutting down, so he loudly said, “I don’t mind a little burn on my pancakes, and neither does Yevgeny. There’s nothing a lot of syrup can’t fix.” He walked over and picked his son up off the floor and while he was putting him into his booster chair he quietly told the kid he’d take him to McDonald’s for breakfast in a little bit if he pretended to eat Ian’s pancakes. Yevgeny was all for that idea.

Ian brought a platter with eight burnt pancakes on it over to the table. Mickey snagged a couple with a fork and started to cut one up for Yevgeny. Fiona and Debbie were still in Ian’s face though, so he left the room with them following along, saying things like, “Have you called your doctor? Maybe you better let her know what’s going on,” and, “You should probably take it easy today, take a nap, did you sleep okay at Rita’s?”

Mickey gave up the pretense of eating the burnt breakfast and called the sisters back to the kitchen. “You guys gotta back off,” he said in a low voice so Ian wouldn’t overhear. “So the guy burned some pancakes-easy enough to do when you’re out of practice cooking for a mob and keeping an eye on the toddler playing on the floor.”

“But…” Fiona began.

“No buts, he’s a grown ass man, he can look after himself,” Mickey cut her off. “Hey, can I borrow your car? We need groceries.”

“Sure?” Fiona said, a bit dazed at the rapid change of subject.

“Thanks, we shouldn’t be gone more than a couple hours,” Mickey said, hoisting Yevgeny out of his booster seat.

“You’re taking Yev?” Fiona asked.

“Yeah-we should be safe enough with the car, I’ll be able to park in one of those reserved for people with young children spots right outside the store.” With that, Mickey went upstairs to change Yevgeny’s clothes since he was still wearing what he had on the day before.

In the hallway they ran into Ian going from the bathroom to his room.

“Hey, we’re going to McDonald’s and the store. You can come with, if you want.” Mickey didn’t wait for an answer, he took Yevgeny into the bathroom to wash his face and brush his teeth. When they came out, Ian was standing where they had last seen him, looking a little dazed.

“You hungry or what, Gallagher? I’m buyin’.”

Ian stared at Mickey for a beat, then broke into a little grin. “I could eat,” he said. “Let me change into some clean clothes.”

“Yeah, that’s what this guy’s doing too, right, Yev?”

“Right, Daddy!”

At McDonald’s Mickey waved Ian up to the counter to order first, but Ian told Mickey he’d just get an Egg McMuffin.

“And you want your usual, Little Man? Hot cakes?” Mickey said to Yev, who was in his arms.

“I want a eggy muffin,” Yev said.

“You sure? You’ve never wanted one before,” Mickey said, but knew Yev wasn’t going to change his mind. Mickey knew the kid was fascinated by Ian, and he was sure that feeling had only grown since Yev got to have him all to himself the day before.

Mickey stepped up to the cashier and ordered five McMuffins since he knew Ian needed to be eating more than he had been lately, and four hash browns, OJ for the kid and a large coffee for himself, but Ian declined the caffeine so Mickey ordered him a large orange juice.

They sat down and Yev polished off his entire McMuffin and a whole hash brown, and drank down all his juice.

“Used to be I’d wind up eating half your meals when we came here-you’re getting big,” Mickey told his son with a big smile on his face and admiration in his voice. Yevgeny grinned back at him. Ian looked at Yevgeny with fondness beaming from his face and Mickey caught himself softening, he could feel it.

“Did you guys have fun last night?” Mickey asked casually, subtly pushing the last uneaten hash brown towards Ian’s side of the table.

“We did! We slept in a fort!” Yev said excitedly.

“A fort?” Mickey said, turning to look at Ian.

“Blanket fort, in Rita’s living room. She lives in a one-bedroom and I didn’t want her to have to sleep on the couch, although she did offer,” Ian explained.

“Aw, shit, man, I didn’t know you’d wind up sleeping on a floor when I sent you…”

“We didn’t-she has one of those blow up mattresses for when her sister visits from Wisconsin. We were fine, weren’t we, Yev?”

“Uh-huh. Ian told me bedtime stories and made puppets dance on the fort walls.”

“Shadow puppets,” Ian said with a blush, as he remembered times when he and Mickey would use various body parts to cast shadows when they were alone together.

“Hands only, I assume,” Mickey said in a soft, quiet voice for only Ian to hear. Ian let out a surprised laugh and nodded.

“And Rita has a cat,” Yevgeny said, continuing the conversation. “Can we get a cat? She liked me! Rita said so! The cat’s name is Pudding and she played with me.”

“House is kind of full up to add a cat to,” Mickey said. “Maybe someday when we’re back in our own place.”

“Okay!” Yev was happy enough with that answer. Ian was thinking about Mickey listening to anything and everything Yevgeny had to say, and taking him seriously. He remembered how Mickey used to do that with him, how he was the only one.

“So, ah, your boss was cool with you showing up, even though you’re not working right now?” Mickey asked. Ian had taken a week off for the fake wedding and to at least put up an appearance of a honeymoon, even if he and Mandy hadn’t gone anywhere.

“Yeah, she’s cool. She’s always on my…butt about using vacation time. It’s not just me,” Ian quickly added, “it’s company policy-they don’t want anyone getting burnt out.”

Mickey nodded, knowing Ian was probably still thinking about how his sisters were talking to him that morning, and feeling the sting.

“You went legit on me,” Mickey said. “Company policies, vacation time, the uniform…Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask you,” not really-Mickey had been wondering about something but until just now he didn’t have any intention of asking Ian about it, “why is your uniform shirt so damn big?” There was a hint of a laugh in his voice.

Ian blushed. “The next size down didn’t fit across my chest and I kept popping buttons on the job,” he admitted.

Mickey laughed, Ian laughed, Yev laughed, and Mickey’s and Ian’s eyes locked and Mickey wanted Ian back so badly in that moment he could taste it.

BUT. Svetlana was still in jeopardy. But they’re living under the same roof with the entire Gallagher family except Frank-even Lip was home for the summer and the four brothers were all sharing that one room; Liam was sleeping on a cot that got folded up during the day for crying out loud. But so much had happened in their shared past. But if Ian ever ditched Mickey again, next time Yevgeny would be old enough to miss him too.

“You ready?” Ian said, noting that Yev was getting antsy.

“Ready?” Mickey sputtered, still lost in his thoughts.

“Ready to go? Or did you want more coffee or something else to eat?”

“Oh, no, no. I’m all set. We should get to the grocery store,” Mickey said, quickly sliding out of the booth and gently dragging Yev along with him.

At the grocery store, Ian pushed the cart and he and Yevgeny kept up a running commentary as they went up and down the aisles.

“What kind of Cheerios do you want, Yev?” Ian asked, as he brought the cart to a smooth halt in front of the variety of boxes.

“Lellow!” Yev said expansively.

“Not the ones with the bee?” Ian asked, and gave Yevgeny an interrogating look.

“Nope, lellow,” Yevgeny insisted.

“OG, like your dad, huh?” Ian said, and reached with his long arm to grab a family sized box of classic plain Cheerios and deposit it into the cart. They discussed most of the purchases in a similar way, Ian giving Yev the chance to voice his preferences. Mickey walked a bit in front of the cart, occasionally throwing in products here and there. He was keeping an eye on all the people around them in the store, but no one seemed suspicious. He was also listening to Ian and Yevgeny’s easy conversation, and remembering all too well how Ian had always been good with the kid, even from the start.

Mickey put Yev back into his car seat and basically stood guard while Ian put all the groceries in the back of Fiona’s Honda CR-V. Ian had installed the car seat-he was certified and everything, and one of his duties for the EMT company was to give a few hours every month volunteering at local hospitals, showing expecting parents and grandparents the proper way to install and use them.

By the time Ian and Mickey were buckled into their seats, Yevgeny had fallen sound asleep. Mickey gave him a look in the rearview mirror before pulling out into the street.

“He’s knocked out,” Mickey smiled, watching the road.

Ian turned in the passenger seat and looked Yev over. “Yeah, he was good last night, but too keyed up to get to sleep at bedtime, and he woke up a couple times during the night.”

“Was he upset?” Mickey asked, keeping his voice down so Yev wouldn’t wake up.

“A little-the first time he was crying for Svetlana, but once he was fully awake and knew where he was he stopped. The cat helped. She was a good distraction.”

Mickey nodded. “You guys seem to be getting along real well, he’s really chatty with you.”

Ian smiled and nodded. “He’s much more talkative than Liam was at that age, well, you know how that was.” Mickey nodded, still watching the road. “And when Debs and Carl were toddlers I was at an age where I didn’t appreciate they were cute, I just thought they were annoying.”

“Still are,” Mickey muttered, but Ian heard it and laughed. Mickey gave him a side look and smiled, and Ian felt the best he had in years.

 

 

 

 

 


	8. Chapter 8

“Mickey? Could you come in here a minute?” Fiona called through her open bedroom door as she caught a glimpse of Mickey walking by.

Mickey stuck his head in the door. “What’s up?” he asked, taking in the sight of Fiona and Debbie sitting on her bed, pawing through something.

“We’re trying to find you guys something you can use as wedding rings,” Debbie said, holding up a ring for Fiona to look at. Fiona shook her head and Debbie tossed the ring aside with a huff.

“Jesus,” Mickey said, taking a couple steps into the room. “Do we need to? Ian and Mandy don’t have rings.”

“But they did have the big wedding,” Fiona said, her eyes never leaving the mound of tangled necklaces, earrings, and rings in front of her. “We gotta do something visible to make it look like we’re actually married. We can’t carry our marriage license around and wave it in people’s faces.”

“And I doubt you’re going to be willing to do any PDA, like Mandy and Ian,” Debbie added, picking up a necklace and pushing her hair aside so she could close the clasp on her own neck.

“What’s PDA?” Mickey said.

Debbie rolled her eyes. “Public displays of affection-you know, hugging and kisses on the cheek, holding hands. How can you be gay and not know that?”

Mickey bristled, but before he could say anything rude Fiona said, “Debs, there’s plenty of people, gay and straight, that don’t talk like they’re texting. And put my necklace back-this ain’t a pawnshop.” Fiona continued to rake her fingers through the tangled pile in front of her. “Aha! Here it is, I knew I had a plain band.” She held up a rose gold ring. “Got it on clearance from Marshall Fields after Christmas one year when I was working for that dive bar on the far side of Canaryville. Thought it’d keep assholes from hittin’ on me. Live and learn. Mickey, you should see if it fits you-I can always wear this one with the cubic zirconias if we can’t find anything else plain.”

Mickey took the ring from her, but it wouldn’t even fit on his pinky let alone his ring finger. He handed it back to Fiona and she slid it onto her right ring finger, since the left was already adorned with the cubic zirconia ring.

“You got a metal coat hanger?” Mickey asked. “I could cut off a piece and twist it into something. Bet it’d look pretty badass too,” he added, getting into the idea.

“Let’s save that as a last resort,” Fiona said. “Maybe Lip or…um, Carl? Has a ring?” She tried to remember if she ever saw either of them wearing anything of the sort. “Since nothing I have is going to fit you no matter if it looks like a wedding band or not.”

“Oh, hey, hold on-I might have something,” Debbie said, scrambling to get off the bed. She returned quickly carrying a purple and plastic jewelry box.

“Cute box,” Mickey snorted.

“Hey, Ian gave this to me for my tenth birthday,” Debbie said indignantly.

Mickey gave it another look. “It’s holdin’ up good,” he said in a much friendlier tone.

Fiona filed that little exchange away to think about later while Debbie plopped back down onto the bed and flipped open the box. She rooted around with her index finger and then pulled something out of one of the compartments.

“Here it is!” she said, triumphantly holding up a gold colored ring.

“Debs, that’s a toe ring,” Fiona said.

“So?”

“So it’s been on your toe,” Fiona said with a wrinkled nose.

“But it’s adjustable, see? It’ll fit Mickey’s finger.” Debbie demonstrated how the back opened and squeezed shut again.

“Let me see that,” Mickey said. Debbie put it in his hand.

“Be careful, if you pull it too far open it could snap,” Debbie warned.

Mickey opened it just enough to get it on his finger and then squeezed it so it would stay on. He held his hand out to look at it, and then turned his palm towards himself so the sisters could take in the effect.

“What do you think?” Debbie asked.

“Good enough,” Mickey said, and nodded.

“You’re gonna clean that thing with hand sanitizer, right?” Fiona added.

They had a simple civil service wedding at city hall, just the two of them. They asked the people behind them in line waiting to get married to be their witnesses, none of their families were there. Mickey didn’t want anyone watching him have another meaningless ceremony and Fiona didn’t care. Afterwards, almost everyone met up at The Alibi for a Gallagher style “reception”, which was basically everyone getting as drunk as possible as quickly as possible.

Mickey caught Kev’s eye and signaled to him to come down to the relative quiet at the far end of the bar.

“Here, man, when this runs out, shut everybody off,” Mickey said, sliding five one hundred dollar bills across the bar.

“Hey, Mickey, you don’t have to do that. Figured the first coupla rounds would be on the bar, then folks could start payin’.”

“You already provided for Mandy’s wedding,” Mickey said. “This one’s on me. Why you bein’ so generous anyway? Business that good?”

Kev looked instantly guilty. “Business is about what it’s always been-maybe a little better with people not being as happy with the new president as they were with the old one-but, ah, um, Vee and me, we’ve sort’ve been shortin’ Svetlana all along, figuring she didn’t deserve half of the profits when there’s two of us and one of her, so…yeah.” He let out a long breath, happy to finally get that off his chest. “We’ve both been feelin’ real shitty about it since she went missing.”

“Yeah, well, if she was here she’d make me pay, so, take this for tonight. And this is for the staff.” Mickey put another hundred on the bar.

“Jesus, Mickey, you rob a bank or something?” Kev asked.

“Nah, just been saving for a rainy day.”

“Let me get you a beer,” Kev said, putting the cash into the register.

Mandy came over and gave him a side hug. “Now you’re my brother and my brother-in-law,” she said, “things are gettin’ complicated.”

“When haven’t they been?” Mickey told her.

Debbie was running around taking pictures and videos on her phone, recording the entire farce for whoever might’ve been watching, just as she had for Ian and Mandy. She got some good shots of Fiona and Mickey showing off their rings and holding up their copy of the marriage license between them, but when she got the bar chanting for them to kiss, Mickey decided he’d had enough and headed for the bathroom. When he got in there he leaned back against the door and tried to relax for the first time all day. The door gave a little behind him, but when it wouldn’t open, someone knocked.

Mickey sighed heavily and moved away from the door, and Fiona slipped in.

“Jesus, Fiona, this is the men’s room.”

“So? I’ve been in here before.”

Mickey rolled his eyes. He bet she had, at that.

“Just wanted you to know I told Debs to cool it with the kissing shit, so you don’t have to kill her when you come back out,” Fiona said, checking her mascara in the mirror.

“Thanks.”

“The pizza should be here any minute. Carl told me they called it in about forty-five minutes ago.” Fiona and Mickey had decided to keep the reception simple and order in fifteen large pizzas with various toppings to feed whoever was at The Alibi. They knew all the regulars would be there and figured it was easier to include them, same with the drinks.

“Sounds good,” Mickey said. He realized he was actually hungry. He hadn’t been able to eat all day but now that the worst was over, he needed something. “Uh, I saw almost everyone out there…is Ian comin’?”

Fiona stopped looking at herself in the mirror and let her eyes lock with Mickey’s over her shoulder in the reflection. “We figured you didn’t want him here.”

“Don’t,” Mickey said, trying to sound casual. “Was just wonderin’, is all.”

“He’s probably still at work right now, then he’s going over to Vee’s to take over watching the kids and she’s comin’ here,” Fiona explained. Mickey nodded.

“Well, if you don’t mind, I actual do need to go in here,” Mickey said. “I promise I won’t kill Debbie.”

Fiona smiled at him from the mirror. “Okay-see ya out there.”

The pizza came right after Mickey returned from the bathroom, and he settled down at one of the tables to have a couple slices. He was still nursing his first beer, but everyone around him was having such a raucous good time no one was paying attention. Fiona sat next to him and Mandy and Debbie were on the other side, then Vee showed up and joined them and she could talk enough to keep the party going far into the night. Mickey clocked that everyone was getting pretty fucking drunk around him, even Carl and Debbie. It was truly a Gallagher rite of passage to drink heavily at The Alibi once they were going to high school. Mickey decided then and there he didn’t want that for Yevgeny. He wasn’t sure how he’d prevent it, but he would.

Mandy and Debbie had picked out the cake for this reception at some supermarket. It was just a regular round layer cake, they figured The Alibi crowd wouldn’t be that into getting pieces of a wedding cake, and they were right. By the time Mandy brought it out, Mickey was the only one sober enough to actually want to eat something sugary.

Mickey and Fiona both held the knife to cut the first piece while Debbie and Mandy took pictures, but no one expected them to feed each other’s faces, not even the attendees who didn’t know the wedding was fake.

Fiona and Vee were into their third pitcher of margaritas by this point, and Fiona said she’d rather have that than cake, so they went off to the blender to make another batch. Mickey asked Kev for a bottle of water and took the piece of cake back to his table. The party raged around him while he took a bite and he was delighted to discover the frosting was some sort of peanut butter and chocolate mixture. The white cake it covered was spongy and delicious. When he was finished, he went to the bar to see if there was any cake left, thinking he wanted to be sure to bring a piece home for Yevgeny. The entire cake was still sitting there untouched, people seemed to know it wouldn’t go with beer and booze.

“Mickey!” Debbie yelled, her face flushed red from all the drinking she’d been doing. “You want another piece of cake?”

“Uh, not right now. I was thinking I’d like to bring some home for Yev.”

“Great idea! Lemme get you the box it came in.” Debbie wandered off towards the kitchen area behind the bar and returned with a plastic base and dome for the cake. When she went to put them down on the bar, she missed by a good couple of feet and Mickey had to grab her by the elbows so she wouldn’t face plant right onto the floor.

“You better let me have those,” Mickey said. “Maybe you should sit down? Have some coffee.”

“Naw, I wanna dance! You wanna dance with me, Mickey? Now that you’re finally married into the fam’ly?”

Mickey was surprised how much that hurt. “Uh, no, I don’t want to dance,” he said quietly.

“Okay! Mandy! Dance with me!” Debbie yelled across the room. Mandy didn’t hear her, but Debbie started making her way towards her anyway.

Mickey put the cake back in the container, struggling a bit to get it to snap shut. He finally accomplished that and took a look around the bar. Everyone was having a good time, from what he could see. He walked over to Fiona and Vee and told them he was going to head out.

“You sure? The party’s just getting started!” Fiona yelled right into his face.

“I’m sure,” Mickey said, wryly. “You stay, have Kev see you home. I’ll see ya in the mornin’. I’ll make the coffee.”

“Oh shit, you ain’t supposed to go anyplace alone!” Fiona said. “Lemme walk ya home…”

“Stand down, Kevin Costner,” Mickey said. “Instead of a bodyguard tonight, I’ll call a cab, okay?”

“Okay!”

“Don’t let Mandy go anyplace by herself, understand?” Mickey said. “Keep her with you and Kev.”

“Sure!” Fiona agreed.

Mickey called a cab and despite the long time it took one to arrive (cab drivers did not like going to that neighborhood, especially at night), he got back to the Gallagher house without incident. He stood at the gate with the cake in his hands, looking up at the dark house for a moment, then he looked at the house two doors down with the living room light on. He wondered to himself what the hell he was doing, but walked toward the lit house anyway. He knocked on the door and after a couple of moments the porch light came on and Ian was peering out the window next to the front door.

“Mickey? Everything okay?” Ian had started speaking even as he unlocked the door. He looked Mickey over from head to toe. “You look good,” he blurted out before his brain could think better of it.

Mickey did look good. For the wedding he had worn the suit Ian had last seen him wearing to the funeral of the killed soldier Ian had dragged him to when Yevgeny was a baby. Despite the warmth of the evening, Mickey had put the jacket back on when he left The Alibi so it wouldn’t get wrinkled like it would have if he had carried it. He was wearing a dark dress shirt and he had a loosened tie hanging around his neck, the top few buttons of the shirt undone. Ian wanted nothing more than to grab onto the tie and pull Mickey over the threshold by it.

Mickey was busy taking in Ian’s appearance as well. He had changed after work into a muscle shirt and shorts. He’d obviously been sleeping when Mickey knocked, his hair was all tousled and he had that fresh, blinking look about him that he always did upon waking, making him look so much like he had as a fifteen year old when he and Mickey first took up with each other. Mickey decided he better start talking before his thoughts went any further.

“I, ah, I brought cake. Thought Yevgeny might want some.”

“Oh, well, he’s asleep, Mick. It’s after ten o’clock.”

Mickey let out a little laugh. “Oh yeah, of course, wasn’t thinkin’. Um, would you like a piece? It’s really good, the frosting is some sort of peanut butter chocolate stuff.”

Ian pressed his lips together and started to turn his head as if he was going to shake it no, so Mickey added, “I was gonna have another piece myself.” Ian’s eyes opened wide and he changed the direction of his head into a nod.

“Come on in,” he told Mickey, backing up so Mickey could enter. Ian led the way to the kitchen table and as Mickey set the cake down, Ian continued on to the cabinets to find a knife and paper plates and forks. When he returned to the table, Mickey was carefully hanging his suit coat on the back of a chair. Mickey caught Ian’s eye and Ian raised his eyebrows.

“Just tryin’ to keep it from gettin’ wrinkled and havin’ to send it back to the cleaners. I just got it cleaned for the wedding,” Mickey explained. He then took off his tie and balled it up and crammed it into his pants pocket.

“Don’t care about the tie, huh?” Ian laughed.

“Naw-stole it from your brother. Didn’t notice till we got to the courthouse it has a cigarette hole burned into it-had to keep my jacket buttoned over it the whole time.”

“I’m surprised you still have that suit,” Ian said as he put the plates and utensils on the table. “Figured you would’ve cut the sleeves off the jacket and turned it into some sort of biker vest by now or something.”

Mickey rolled his eyes. “It’s my one suit, I need it every time I go to court…” His voice trailed off and suddenly the lightness they’d been sharing since he came in seemed to dim. “How big a piece of this do you want?” he said to change the subject.

“Whatever you’re having,” Ian said, sitting down at the table. He raised his arms above his head and interlaced his fingers and arched his back. Mickey knew Ian was only trying to stretch out after falling asleep on the Balls’ couch, but, damn. He forced himself to concentrate on getting the cake out and cut. He slid a fairly large piece over to Ian, then cut one for himself.

Ian took a bite and moaned.

“Right?” Mickey grinned. He knew Ian didn’t have much of a sweet tooth, but he always really liked peanut butter and would steal all the peanut butter cups out of the kids’ Halloween loot way back when. They ate their cake in relatively companionable silence and when Ian finished, Mickey offered him another piece but Ian declined.

“Any more sugar and I’ll never get back to sleep,” Ian said.

Mickey put the top plastic piece back on the cake and stood up. “I should let you get back to it-I’ll just get Yev…”

“No! Uh, I mean, he’s sound asleep, picking him up will wake him up, you should just let him be,” Ian said. “I figure Kev and Vee will be home super late and probably super drunk; I thought I’d just stay on the couch here tonight.”

“Oh.” Mickey paused and thought. “Yeah, that’ll be alright, I guess. I’ll just check on him, if you think they won’t mind me going upstairs.”

“Of course they won’t mind, he’s your son.” Ian stood up and led the way up the funky spiral staircase. He showed Mickey into the girls’ room, which had a pink nightlight glowing softly. All three kids were in Gemma’s bed, the two girls snuggled together and Yevgeny fast asleep on his stomach down across the foot of the bed. Ian took a lightweight throw off of Amy’s bed and gently placed it over Yev. Mickey reached down and smoothed Yevgeny’s hair back off his forehead and checked to see that he seemed warm enough. He straightened up, nodded at Ian, and made his way out of the room and back downstairs. He was going to take his coat of the chair when Ian’s voice stopped him.

“Where you goin’?”

“Back over to your, ah, the house,” Mickey said.

“Now? In the dark?”

“It’s only two doors over,” Mickey said, getting a bit exasperated.

“I know, but…you’re not supposed to go anyplace alone.”

“I made it here on my own,” Mickey said.

“Yeah, but-we’ve all been getting really slack, Mickey.”

“Ian, I think I can make it two doors over.”

“Svetlana only had to go upstairs from The Alibi and she didn’t make it,” Ian muttered, then his eyes got huge. “Oh, hey, Mickey, I’m sorry, I didn’t…”

“No, it’s true. You make a good point. A few good points. We have been getting too sloppy about staying safe. If they could get her, they could get anybody. I’ll stay.”

“Really?”

“I just said so, didn’t I? Hey, you got work tomorrow? You should be sleeping.”

Ian nodded and said, “I can take the recliner, if you want the couch.”

“I’ll be fine. Go back to where you were when I woke you up.”

They went into the living room and Ian stretched out on the couch and Mickey sat on the recliner.

“There’s beer in the fridge if you want some-Kev told me to help myself but I don’t do that when I’m watching the kids, or on a work night. I’m too much of a lightweight now,” Ian said through a yawn.

“I’m good,” Mickey said.

Ian tossed him the remote off the coffee table. “Watch whatever you want, I just had it on for background noise,” he said, laying back on the couch.

Mickey looked at the TV and saw whatever crappy rerun Ian had been watching was wrapping up. He decided he’d wait and see what came on next. He glanced over at Ian and saw he was already back asleep, his lips pursed ever so slightly and his chest rising and falling evenly.

A few hours later Mickey woke up abruptly when he heard a key in the lock. Kev walked in carrying a snoring Vee in his arms. Mickey stood up and walked towards them so he could keep his voice low. Ian was still sound asleep on the couch.

“Hey, Kev-she alright?” Mickey asked, nodding at Vee.

“Yeah, man. Passed out cold when she sat on the Gallagher’s front stoop while I walked everybody inside.”

“Mandy get home all right?”

“Yup, we all came home together in a group when I closed up The Alibi. Went inside to make sure the house was secure. I’m sure they’re all passed out over there. Mandy and Fi and Vee really went deep into the margaritas after you left,” Kev reported. “How’s things here?” he added, taking in Ian on the couch and then looking at Mickey with a bit of a grin.

“Ah, good, quiet. I stopped by to check on Yev and then decided we gotta get better about not wandering around alone. Hope it’s okay I was sleeping on your chair.”

“It’s fine, man, stay all night. Ian looks like he could use the sleep.” Kev shifted Vee in his arms a bit.

“We checked the kids…,” Mickey squinted at the clock on the cable box under the TV. It read three AM, “about four hours ago. They’re sleeping good too.”

“Good. I’m gonna get Vee put to bed, I’m beat.”

“You need any help?” Mickey said, wondering how Kev would manage the stairs carrying her like that.

“Naw, I’ve had plenty of practice. Here’s a suggestion, though: be real quiet in the morning. She wakes up like a bear after a night of tequila.”

“Will do,” Mickey said.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


	9. Chapter 9

The summer was passing by quickly. There was still no news of Svetlana, and the group had had zero contact from Jimmy/Steve/Ben, but all hoped no news was good news.

Mickey and Ian still didn’t see much of each other, but by now, at least on Mickey’s part, it had stopped being intentional. Their schedules just didn’t line up in a way that put them in the same place at the same time much, and Mickey figured it was probably for the best.

The one new chunk of time they did spend together was late afternoons, when they both got home from work. Ian used to go running then, but now that it was full blown hot humid Chicago summer he spent that golden hour out in the Gallagher pool, teaching Yevgeny how to swim.

Mickey would sit on the stairs next to the pool, surveying the neighborhood in aviator sunglasses. He also got plenty of chances to look at Ian unobserved from behind the dark lenses.

Ian and Yevgeny would be slathered in sunscreen, Ian sticking right next to Yev as he taught him to kick his legs and paddle around with his floaties on. After a couple of days of letting Yevgeny get used to being in the water, Ian taught him how to put his face under and blow out so water wouldn’t get in his nose. When Yev had that mastered, Ian moved on to having him use a kickboard instead of the floaties to maneuver around the pool.

The second week Ian asked Yevgeny if he was ready to swim all on his own, no floaties, no kickboard. Mickey sat up straighter on the porch. He didn’t want to say anything to scare the kid off from doing it, but he was only three. Ian sensed Mickey’s tenseness and looked up at him from the pool.

“I’ll stay right by you the whole time, Yev. If I see you need me, I’ll be right here to grab you and pull you up out of the water, like this.” He got his big hands wrapped around Yevgeny’s waist and pulled him high into the air, legs kicking and his little kid squeals of laughter echoing around the yard. Ian pulled Yev down and snuggled him against his hip, which was mostly out of the water. “Deal?”

“Deal!”

Ian deflated some air out of them and then gently peeled off one floatie after the other. He placed his open hand over Yevgeny’s belly and lowered him to the water. “Okay, Yev, I’ll keep my hand here, and you kick, kick, kick, just like you’ve been doing, okay?”

Yevgeny was all business now. He had a serious look of determination on his face, his blue eyes looking straight ahead and his tongue just poking out at the corner of his mouth. He looked so much like Mickey right then that it was all Ian could do not to look up at the man himself on the stairs again.

“Ready? Go,” Ian said, his free hand staying right over Yevgeny’s back, ready to grab him if he needed saving. But Yev was a natural. His sturdy little legs kicked and his arms naturally started to paddle. Ian went in a full circle around the pool with him and then told him to keep going, he was going to take his hand away but he’d stay right with him. Yev nodded and Ian let his bottom hand drop away. Yev kept swimming in a circle and once he’d gone around again he said, “You can let go now.”

“I did, Yev, you’re doing it! You’re swimming!”

Yev turned his head to look up at Ian, and sort of threw everything out of whack, but Ian was right there to steady him before he went under.

“I’m swimming?” Yev said.

“Yup, you want me to let go again?” Ian said.

“Yeah.” This time he felt Ian’s hand let go and started kicking and paddling harder. He held his head up a little and yelled, “Dad! I’m swimming!”

“I see that, buddy,” Mickey said, right from the other side of the wall. Unnoticed by both the guys in the pool, Mickey had left the steps and was walking around the pool while Yev swam. Ian looked up and gave Mickey a quick smile, then went back to keeping his eyes on the kid. Yevgeny was making his way over to the pool wall where Mickey was. When he was close enough, Mickey reached over the side and pulled Yevgeny up to sit on the rim of the pool, keeping his hands on him so he wouldn’t fall back in.

“Did you see? I went all the way ‘round!” Yevgeny said, excitedly looking at Mickey’s face.

“You’re a natural, Yev. I’ve never seen such good swimmin’.”

Yevgeny beamed.

“You, ah, you had a great teacher. Say thank you to Ian.”

Ian almost couldn’t believe his ears.

“Thank you, Ian! Can you teach me to swim underwater now?”

Ian laughed. “I think we can save that for tomorrow. Why don’t you take a little break now-your fingers are getting pruney.”

“Okay. Wanna kick the soccer ball with me?” Yevgeny loved getting any chance to spend time with Ian and didn’t want it to end.

“Hey, buddy, how about we get you dried off, and maybe have a little snack, and then if you still feel like kicking the ball around we will,” Mickey counteroffered. Being in the pool in the early evening always knocked him out for a good night’s sleep.

Less than an hour later, Yevgeny was sound asleep in his bed, and Mickey and Ian were sitting at the kitchen table, catching a breeze from the window fan as the sun slowly set and the house cooled down a bit. Mickey was nursing a beer, and Ian had a glass of ice water in front of him. This spending time, just the two of them, was new, but after a long, hot day neither of them felt like being in their hot rooms yet.

“You really think Yev will be swimming underwater tomorrow?” Mickey said, more to break the silence than anything. It felt too quiet that night-Mandy and Debs had gone off to a movie to take advantage of air conditioning, Carl said he had a date, Lip was probably doing a fairly good Frank impersonation at The Alibi, Liam was at a sleepover, and Fiona was working a night shift at the diner.

“Maybe, if he doesn’t overthink it. It took me a while to work up the guts to keep my face under while I was swimming, if I recall correctly.”

“He’s so little, man,” Mickey said.

“Yeah, but kids learn to do it-even babies. Remember the Nirvana cover?”

“But with babies they have that natural instinct, right? You blow in their face, they hold their breath, and you can dunk them under? Yev’s over three-do kids that age still have that instinct?”

“I dunno,” Ian admitted. “How do you know so much about babies?”

Mickey let out a little huff of a laugh as he peeled the label on his bottle with his thumb. “Nothing to do in the joint but read and work out. Parenting magazines were a good choice, less chance of the pages being stuck together.”

“Stuck together…?” Ian said, then thought about it. “Ohhh.”

“So, Orange Boy and Piece Of Shit, together just like old times,” a voice behind Mickey suddenly said.

Mickey whipped around in his chair and Ian got up from his side of the table, painfully banging his thighs in the process, but he didn’t even notice.

“Svetlana!” Mickey shouted, and surprised everyone in the room, including himself, when he got up and pulled her into a tight hug. He let her go almost right away. “Are you alright? How did you get here? Who’s with you?”

Svetlana waited for him to stop barking questions. She gave him a wry look and Mickey finally quieted down and took a moment to really look at her. She looked like shit. Her face and clothes were smudged and dirty looking, and her hair was hanging in greasy tangles.

“I went to Alibi first, Kevin told me I’d find you and Yevgeny here. Where is my son?”

“Upstairs, sleeping-I could take you to see him, if-f-f-f you’d like,” Ian stammered. Svetlana always made him nervous ever since he ran off with Yevgeny when he was a baby.

“Yes. Do that. Now,” Svetlana said.

Ian shot Mickey a look, and Mickey nodded. “I’ll call Mandy and Fiona, tell them she’s back,” Mickey said.

Ian brought Svetlana to where Yev was sleeping. She fell to her knees beside the bed and gently stroked his hair, being careful not to wake him. Ian stayed outside the doorway, wondering if he should go back downstairs and let her have some privacy, but after a moment, she stood up and looked around the room in the dim light from the old nightlight of Liam’s they used when Yevgeny was in bed alone. A window fan was doing its best to draw in the cooler night air from outside.

Svetlana noticed Mickey’s deodorant stick on the top of the high chest of drawers and a plate overflowing with change. Mickey had a habit of emptying any change he accumulated throughout the day buying coffee or cigarettes or beer from his pockets each night, and never bothered to put the change back to use the next day. At the Milkovich house, Iggy usually scooped it up before it had a chance to build up, but this saucer was overflowing.

“You don’t sleep in here?” Svetlana asked suddenly, startling Ian a bit.

“Wha…no, no-this is Mickey and Yev’s room. I’m down the hall.”

“You two are not together yet?”

Ian’s eyes grew huge. “No. Not at all. He doesn’t…” he shut himself up, figuring Mickey would not want him discussing anything like this with Svetlana.

Svetlana muttered something under her breath in Russian. Ian was pretty sure he caught the word meaning “stupid” he had learned long ago from her-it was a word she used a lot. She spoke in a voice still-quiet because of the sleeping child, but loud enough for Ian to hear. “The boy looks well.”

“He is-Mickey’s been doing a great job taking care of him. Yev’s missed you, but we’ve all pitched in to keep him distracted.”

“Do you think I could shower?” Svetlana asked suddenly.

“Oh, of course. Um, I’m sure Fiona has something you could put on after. I know she did laundry today…” Ian nearly tripped over his own feet to get to Fiona’s room. He couldn’t get away from Svetlana fast enough. Fiona had left a basket of folded laundry on her bed. Ian grabbed a robe-like thing and wondered if he should over Svetlana some underwear too, but figured that was a bit too personal for him to help himself to from his sister’s clothes. He gave Svetlana the robe and some clean towels, then hurried back downstairs.

“Everyone’s on their way home,” Mickey said. “I sent a group text.”

By the time Svetlana reappeared, Fiona, Lip, Debbie, Mandy, Carl, and even the Balls were assembled at the kitchen table. They all fell silent when Svetlana came down the stairs, her hair still wet and slicked back.

“Is that my robe?” Fiona said, breaking the quiet.

“I lent it to her, hope that’s okay,” Ian said, before Svetlana had a chance to maybe bite back at that bit of pettiness.

“Looks better on her anyway,” Fiona muttered darkly. It was true. The robe was a shade of pink that made Fiona look sallow, but gave Svetlana a rosy glow. Fi had bought it on clearance at Nordstrom Rack and didn’t have a choice of colors.

“Have a seat and tell us what happened,” Mickey said, his tolerance for small talk and bullshit at an all time low. Svetlana gracefully perched on the chair next to his.

“Orange Boy, glass of wine, please,” she said. Ian didn’t hesitate, he went right to the fridge with a glass and drained some rosé out of the box Fiona had in there.

“Yeah, help yourself,” Fiona muttered as Ian placed the glass on the table in front of Svetlana.

While Svetlana took a sip of the wine, everyone was leaning forward, waiting for her to speak. Kev finally couldn’t take it anymore.

“So, did they rescue you? The Freedom Fighters?” he blurted.

Svetlana raised an eyebrow. “Who?”

“That group of guys, they’re looking for you, they’re the ones that told us what happened, where you were,” Kevin added, very much unhelpfully, as far as Svetlana was concerned. She looked at Mickey.

“What is idiot talking about?”

“There’s some…organization or something, of men-Fiona’s ex is one of them. Call themselves the Night Riders. He did tell us why you were abducted, and that you wound up being held in California,” Mickey explained.

“I know no such men,” Svetlana said.

“Then how did you escape?” Debbie asked. “Who helped you?”

“We helped ourselves, the women I was held prisoner with,” Svetlana said. “At first they had many men guarding us, as time went by, more and more left. Some talked about being reassigned, but more talked about not getting paid. I think they walked away. In the end, only the most stupid were still watching over us.”

“Shit, Ben should be here to hear this,” Lip said. He looked at Fiona. “Do you have any way of contacting him?”

“No.” She shook her head. “From the start, I’ve known just as much as anyone here about when he’d show up or where he goes when he leaves.”

“How did you get away?” Debbie asked again. She wanted to know what happened, they could worry about Jimmy/Steve/Ben later.

“We seduced stupid guards. We convinced them we wanted to have big orgy with the last three that were left, but that we wouldn’t enjoy ourselves or be able to pleasure them with our hands tied behind our backs. They took off our zip ties and left new ones right out in the open to tie us back up with after orgy was over. We got the men on their backs on the floor and then used the zip ties on them-threatened to cut off the blood supply to their dicks till they fell off. Then we used more ties on their hands and feet and left them in cattle car.”

Mickey gave Svetlana a big grin. “I always said you were a ball buster.”

“Now you can add dick buster to list,” she smiled back.

“How did you get back here?” Mandy asked.

“Kindness of strangers. Found a trucker headed here, traded hand jobs for ride.”

“Jesus, that must’ve been hard to trust a man after all you went through,” Ian said.

“Who said anything about man? Besides, she was very nice-I told her to look me up next time she’s in town. Free drinks at The Alibi.”

Everyone talked long into the night, but eventually Svetlana’s exhaustion and near starvation kicked in, and they fed her and sent her up to bed with Yevgeny, and Mickey slept on the couch. Yev was over the moon when he woke up and found his mommy was back.

 


	10. Chapter 10

In the following days, they explained the fake marriages to Svetlana; and Ben and another man they had never met before turned up to get Svet’s account of the events. The other man was Ben’s supervisor, he was introduced as “Thomas Jefferson”. Mickey and the Gallaghers were getting a bit fed up with all the cloak and dagger and aliases, but Ben assured them their organization was legit, and that they’d be able to ensure that Svetlana and Yevgeny were safe and wouldn’t be targeted again.

“Thomas” got in contact with an editor at US Magazine, and Svetlana was given a high five figure deal to give them an exclusive to her story about being abducted and separated from her child and her escape and return. From that, Reece Witherspoon bought the rights to turn her story into a movie, and the actress and Svetlana appeared on Ellen to discuss the project. Svetlana was an immediate sensation, with her exotic looks and quick wit. She became instantly recognizable and most of the country was outraged at the ordeal she had been put through. Thomas’ prediction that she’d be safe from here on out was guaranteed: people would notice if she ever went missing again. She was too high profile for the president of either country to try anything else with her. And now that people were aware of the abductions, it became a lot safer for everyone. Voices began speaking up stating that in the land of the free, this shit would not be tolerated.

Svetlana never said what she got paid for the movie deal, but she bought an apartment in a high rise building with full time doormen and security guards and a view of Lake Michigan and she signed over her share of The Alibi after having new plumbing and heating installed and didn’t ask the Balls for a dime. She also agreed to shared custody of Yevgeny with Mickey. Mickey, knowing that his son was now set for life financially, dipped into his squirreled away funds and made the Milkovich house into one of the safest places on the South Side. He and Mandy moved back in and got ready for Yevgeny’s weeks to visit. The day Svetlana moved into her new apartment was the same day the president and the vice president were charged with crimes against humanity and treason. She and Yevgeny left their swanky condo and made their way south to an impromptu celebration at The Alibi.

While everyone was celebrating, Mickey and Ian locked eyes across the bar. Mickey hadn’t seen Ian since he and Mandy had moved out. He knew his sister was still in contact with Ian, they were all waiting for word from the Night Riders that they could annul their marriages, but Thomas and Ben had told them they should definitely wait until the current administration was out. Mickey hadn’t talked to Ian in weeks.

Ian made his way through the crowd to him, and had to get close to yell in Mickey’s ear so he could hear him. “Can we talk?”

Mickey took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment. He fought down the impulse to snap that they hadn’t talked in so long, why start now. He knew Ian had been giving him space while Svetlana was missing-space that he definitely needed. And then Gallagher had probably waited to let Mickey get resettled into his house and to make the first move, which Mickey had been tempted to do, countless times. He’d reached for his phone at least a few times a day since he’d moved out. He glanced at Ian. He was patiently waiting. Didn’t seem like he was going to push. Mickey shrugged. Might as well get this over with.

“Let me tell Svetlana and Mandy I’m leaving,” he said, having to yell right into Ian’s ear. Ian nodded and Mickey found his ex-wife and sister sitting at the same table. Yev had a Shirley Temple in front of him as he sat on Svetlana’s lap.

“Yo, I’m headed home. You’ll see Mandy home?” Svetlana had also invested in a car and driver. The guy bore more than a passing resemblance to The Rock.

“Of course. We’ll take Gallaghers home too.” Svetlana was truly grateful to them for taking Yevgeny in and helping him while she was gone.

“Okay-uh, Ian’s coming with me. Now.”

Svetlana and Mandy exchanged a significant look.

“It ain’t like that…” Mickey began.

“No one said anything, Mickey. Get your ass outta here, we want to party!” Mandy said, yelling the last word and everyone who could hear her, including Yevgeny, let out a whoop. Mickey shook his head and then squatted down next to his son.

“Have fun and I’ll see you in a couple of days, right?” Mickey said, looking into his son’s happy face.

“’Kay, Daddy! You and Ian have fun too!”

Mickey kissed him on top of his head as he stood up, ignoring the Ian comment altogether.

Mickey and Ian walked to the Milkovich house, each lost in his own thoughts. At the door, Ian waited patiently while Mickey keyed in the code on the security system and then unlocked and unbolted the door. Inside, Mickey reset the alarm and they went into the living room. Ian looked around. He didn’t give himself a chance to look around the day he had helped them pack up their stuff to bring to the Gallagher’s.   Ian felt he hadn’t really been inside this house in, well, it felt like a lifetime, and lots had changed. The furniture was newer and better, the air was fresher, the whole place felt cleaner and calmer. Ian sighed. He sort of missed the familiarity of the way it used to be.

“You want water, a juice?” Mickey said, not ready for whatever this was going to turn into just yet.

“Beer?” Ian said. Mickey’s mouth twitched, but he didn’t say anything. He walked to the kitchen and returned with a beer and a bottled water. He handed the beer to Ian without comment and sat down on the couch.

“My first one of the night,” Ian said nervously. “Thought I might need it.”

Mickey raised an eyebrow and then nodded towards the bottle in his own hand. “I had a couple of drinks at The Alibi. Thought I might need to slow down, now.”

Ian nodded. He was still standing in the middle of the room. It was starting to get on Mickey’s nerves.

“Uh, actually, I never-well, hardly ever-even have a beer anymore. Gets me too fucked on top of the meds.”

Mickey had noticed in the weeks they were staying in the same house, Ian never had alcohol and hardly any caffeine too.

“Grab a water, or whatever you want,” Mickey said, leaning back on the couch. Ian gave him a grateful smile and walked quickly to the kitchen, returning just as quickly with a water that he grabbed as he put the beer back into the refrigerator. Ian sat perched on the edge of an overstuffed chair that was nearest the couch. He opened his water and swallowed about half of it down in one gulp.

“I want to apologize…” Ian began.

Mickey groaned. “Could you not, Gallagher?”

“I have to Mick, at least for one thing: I’m sorry I never visited you in prison after that last time.”

Mickey wouldn’t look at him. He didn’t want to hear this. He thought he had, he had thought about little else for the months he spent languishing in his cell, but now…now he just wanted to forget. He’d moved on. It was done.

“At the time, I was…was nothing. The meds weren’t adjusted yet and I felt nothing. I’d look at you and see you were feeling, that you wanted me to talk to you, but, I had nothing, nothing to offer you and no way to tell you even that much.”

“But after that?” Mickey croaked, and could’ve bitten his own tongue off. He didn’t want to hear this, didn’t need Ian to put himself through this-they had moved on. Life had gone on.

“After,” Ian said with a humorless laugh. “After I had to be _careful_ , I had to ‘take care of myself’, make sure I wasn’t a danger to myself and others.” Mickey could tell by the way Ian was speaking he was quoting things he had been told, probably more times than he wanted to hear, and by more than just Fiona or Lip. “We were never good at careful, Mickey, so I thought I had to stay away.”

Mickey rubbed his thumb along the bottom side of his lower lip, but didn’t say anything this time.

“So, I met a guy I thought was careful. It got me out of the house, where my family was the biggest threat to me going off the rails again. I think Mandy told you about him? The fire fighter? I didn’t feel anything with him, and at first I thought it was just the meds, and it didn’t even matter. Caleb never cared or tried to get me interested in sex when I couldn’t get it up-he was happy as long as he got off and that was that. I thought he was what I was supposed to want with the steady job and stuff. But over time, I finally realized how Caleb just wanted me as a gay prop to show off to his family and other gays. He didn’t care about me, just cared how I looked and that I was there whenever he wanted me for something.”

Mickey didn’t like hearing all this; and it didn’t really explain why Ian never came back to see him. But he didn’t say anything. He waited to hear if Ian was going to say anything else. After a moment, he did.

“When I finally realized thinking about you could get me responsive sexually, it had already been months since I hadn’t been back to the prison and I didn’t know how to try to see you without it just being hurtful and frustrating for you.”

“What the fuck does that mean-thinking about me got you responsive?” Mickey blurted out. “You used me to get off with him?”

“No! Never! I’d never think about you when I was…with him. But when I was asleep? Or alone? Suddenly you were all I was thinking about, and my body responded…Jesus, just seeing you that first night in my kitchen, even with everyone else there, I popped a boner almost the second I laid eyes on you” Ian said, his face burning with shame. “When you were locked up, I wanted to see you, more than anything, but not behind bars, especially since you were in there because of me. Plus, I didn’t know if I could handle it, if you told me to fuck off.”

“Excuse me?” Mickey said, his eyebrows raised as high as they would go.

“Mickey, I know I would’ve deserved it, but in the past, every time you left me, and then especially when you married Svetlana, it damn near killed me and I honestly didn’t know if I was strong enough for it to happen again once I was on the meds and seeing a therapist and my stability was still in a very fragile state.”

Mickey said quietly, “You know why I had to marry Svetlana.”

“Knowing why didn’t make it hurt any less-I was a teenage boy helplessly in love and I had to watch that person with someone else.”

Mickey flinched at the real hurt in Ian’s tone. For the first time he really realized how much he hurt Ian too-it’s not that he didn’t think he did, he just never saw how badly it hurt Ian since what he did, he did to save both their lives, but Ian was right, that didn’t make it hurt less.

“I’m not blaming you, Mickey, not anymore. When I was a kid back then, I honestly didn’t want to think our love couldn’t overcome anything. I let myself think you were choosing her over me, which I know you weren’t. But back then I couldn’t help but think she was the easier option for you, that your life would be better if you went along with pretending to the world that the straight life was what you always wanted-that it was all better than being stuck with me. And then I got sick and I really thought you’d be better off without me.”

“I never wanted anything but you,” Mickey said, looking down at the bottle in his hands.

“But I let Monica get into my head, convince me I wasn’t me if I was medicated. I ran away with her the second time and saw for myself that her life wasn’t what I wanted, living in a trailer with a teenage one-man meth lab, but I could so easily picture that being us. If I went back to you then, I would’ve dragged you down with me-and I know you, you would’ve done anything to stick by me. I had to…”

“You didn’t have to,” Mickey said emphatically, finally looking at Ian.

Ian shook his head. “My choices then seemed to be to lose myself by going on the mind-numbing drugs or lose you. I chose to cut you free to give you a shot at a life. I’m sorry Sammi showed up and took that away from you, and I’m sorry I went on the meds too late for us. I fucked everything up beyond recognition. I made such a mess I didn’t know how to get out…”

Even now, it was killing Mickey to see Ian beat himself up for all this. So much of the shit they had been through hadn’t been their fault.

Ian took a moment to pull himself together and then started talking again, more calmly. “I thought everything was done, and I broke shit off with Caleb. I was feeling less than nothing when I was with him, plus I always knew it was just going to be a matter of when we broke things off, not if. I was way too young for him-don’t know why he took up with a teenager in the first place. And for months I was what I thought was fine-existing, going to work, taking my meds, sticking to a schedule, sleeping the same time every night, up the same time every morning.”

Mickey nodded, he had seen Ian doing that for himself.

“And then I heard you got out, and I thought that was it. You’d find someone new and nothing would ever thrill me again. I’d live my quiet life, hopefully not bothering anybody.”

“Ian…” Mickey groaned.

“No, Mickey, it’s what I really thought. I had to be careful, remember? I thought feeling anything, anything that good, would be dangerous for me. Like, a gateway to wanting more thrills, you know?”

Mickey nodded. He knew. It was how he fell so far for Gallagher in the first place-everything he got from Ian left him wanting more more more.

“But then we were forced together and I found out something. You were being careful too. I saw you with Yevgeny, with Mandy-you’ve changed. You wait before you act now, you keep your mouth shut sometimes when you used to would’ve yelled.”

Now it was Mickey who was blushing. “Maybe I finally grew up, a little,” he murmured. “Maybe I never want to fuck up so bad again I wind up back in the can.”

Ian nodded. “I get that. But you know what else I found out? When we got to spend time together, it was all still there. Just walking around a grocery store with you was thrilling, you watching me teach Yev to swim was thrilling. I don’t need to be flying high or off my meds to feel, not when I’m near you.”

Mickey took a deep breath. He wasn’t sure what Ian was getting at. He didn’t know if he wanted to be responsible for Ian’s happiness, but a little voice inside him was telling him he did want that, that he didn’t want anyone else in his “place” when it came to Ian.

“You don’t have to say anything now,” Ian continued. “But I just wanted you to know. I want you back. I’m willing to wait, to apologize, to give you anything you need…”

“Ian…” Mickey interrupted. “I mean, we, we can’t keep getting together and then ripping each other apart. I’ve got Yev to think about now. I can’t not be there for him next time you get me so fucked up I don’t know if I’m comin’ or goin’.”

Ian swallowed hard. “That’s fair. And I can only promise you I’ll try not to fuck up again. Or that when I do, I won’t take you down with me.” Ian’s big eyes were shining with tears he was trying to hold back.

“Ian, I’m not saying you can never leave me, but when we do this it’s gotta be because you believe we’re gonna stick this time.”

Ian’s eyes lit up and he quickly bounced from the chair he was sitting in onto the couch right next to Mickey. “You mean it? You said when, not if.”

Mickey gave him a soft smile. “Of course I mean it. You wore me down, all those weeks at your house, giving me my space, being the perfect gentleman. There were some days there I thought I was gonna die if you didn’t get on me soon.”

Ian put his hands on Mickey’s face to pull him into a kiss. Mickey took a moment to think how they were so warm and how did he ever live without that? All that Gallagher warmth that Ian had lavished on him since they were just a couple of hood rats. At the last second before their lips met, Ian took his hands away so Mickey lunged forward and kissed him, but Ian didn’t kiss back.

“Did I read things wrong?” Mickey said, worried Gallagher was having second thoughts already.

“No-you just took me by surprise,” Ian said breathlessly. Then they really kissed. Deeply. Passionately. Softly. Mickey felt Ian’s lips quirking up into a smile, and then Ian started to giggle when they pulled apart a bit for air.

“What?” Mickey asked, his blue eyes searching all around Ian’s face.

“It just hit me-we’re brothers-in-law twice over, and we’re making out. How did our lives get that complicated?” he laughed.

Mickey laughed too, but in a bit of a puzzled, exasperated way. “That’s what you’re thinking when you’re kissing me? That we’re married to each other’s sisters?”

Ian shrugged. “It’s true, isn’t it?”

“I don’t know, man-those were some weakass vows you said to my sister. Is the marriage even legal?” Mickey joked.

“I was saving the good stuff for when I get married for real,” Ian said seriously.

Mickey gave him an admiring look. “Think you’re gonna sweep me off my feet?”

“Think you’re gonna sweep me off mine-make me forget you’re married to my sister?” Ian retorted.

“Fuck that. I know I can take your mind off it.”

And Mickey had the goods to back that statement up.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And they lived happily ever after. No one ever went back to Shameless solo to fuck up endgame, Svetlana and Yevgeny were never written off never to be mentioned or seen again, the evil administration was kicked out of Washington, DC, and life was happy and love was love again. 
> 
> The end. 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed my little fix it fic :o)


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